Safe and Sound
by Itsyoursis-Artemis
Summary: Ayano was abandoned at birth at an orphanage and grew up believing that her birth mother hated her. On her 17th birthday, it was revealed that she might have been abandoned for safety reasons, and not because she was loathed. The teenager made a goal to locate her missing mother, and her first clue was the house her mother grew up in at a town named Namimori. HibariOC. slow burn.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! itsyoursis-Artemis here! I present to you my very first fanfic that I have written,ever. I had been planning to write this story in **five years** , and I finally found the courage to do so. Please be gentle, I am a new writer, but I do welcome your advice and reviews!

Last but not least, I have written **up to chapter 8** of this fanfic, but I will be publishing them every 2 and a half days. it takes me one day to write a chapter, another to proofread, and a half to find my confidence LMAO.

I also have a tumblr sideblog where I publish **teasers** for the **unpublished chapters**. I also have other tags there that apply to my story. Please go to my profile for the link.

PS: I DO NOT OWN KHR, AKIRA AMANO DOES. I ONLY OWN MY OCs.

Enjoy! Please do review, it helps me find my confidence a lot faster :)

* * *

 _The night was supposed to be young, but it aged as the storm arrived uninvited. Heavy rain disturbed households who were having their early dinner in a small, quiet village in Toyama. Students who were on their way home from school were forced to run; some tried to find a dry place so they could wait for the rain to calm down._

 _A young woman in her early thirties was carrying a baby wrapped in a red raincoat._ _The said woman arrived in front of a rusty, gated place with an arched plaque that engraved the sign "House of Vesta" which stretched on the top of the gate ._ _The woman hesitated. She then mustered up all strength she had left. She wanted to give her baby a better chance at life._

 _She rang the bell._

 _She rang again._

 _And then came the third ring._

" _Who is it?"_

 _The voice finally answered through the intercom. The security camera placed at the gated entrance moved to focus on the woman with the baby._

" _Please….please take my baby," the mother begged._

" _Business hours is over, if you've filled the orphanage form you can submit them tomorrow in the morning," declared the voice._

 _The mother looked directly at the security camera that was pointing at her. The woman behind the intercom got a clear view of the desperate mother with her baby._

" _You… no way." The owner of the voice immediately dashed to grab the nearest raincoat and umbrella. She unlocked the door of the orphanage house, ran across the huge front yard, and met with the fully-drenched mother by the gate. She opened the gate to let the desperate mother in. She then led her to the front porch of the house to avoid getting more drenched by the rain. The owner of the orphanage, Tara Fujioka, looked at the very familiar mother in disbelief._

" _What happened?"_

" _You have to take my baby in, Tara," the mother pleaded, revealing her distraught state._

" _Yoshino…" Tara revealed the name of the mother whom she seemed to be acquainted of. "It's been several years since the last time we saw each other. What happened to you? What about your baby's father?"_

" _He...he's… that… alcoholic and abusive person," Yoshino stuttered, but she fought the impediment and continued. "Tara, my great friend, you have known me for many years...however, what you don't know is that I am not suited to raise her… I cannot make her suffer due to my mistake…So I beg you to take my daughter…"_

 _The crying mother handed Tara a sealed envelope that was in the raincoat to prevent it from getting wet. "Give this to her when she turns 17. This is her future."_

" _What mistake are you talking about? Yoshino, as your friend, I am genuinely worried about you… you have to let me help you!" Tara pleaded._

" _You can't… I…. I have problems… that needed to be resolved."_

 _The distraught mother was shaking; she then quickly handed the baby to Tara, who she almost dropped but caught on time. "Please take care of Ayano, raise her like your own… you are the only one that I trust with my daughter." She immediately ran away from the house._

" _Wait! Yoshino!... Shino-chan!" But her dear friend, whom she hasn't been in touched with for almost 10 years, was already out of her sight._

" _Ayano…" The owner of the orphanage house looked at the abandoned baby on her arms._

* * *

Seventeen years had passed since then, and today, on Ayano's 17th birthday, she finally learned of this story. Ayano was in Tara's office of the Vesta orphanage. Ayano is a girl that exudes a mysterious elegance. Her jet black, silky hair fell just above her waist, and her see-through bangs finely complimented her cool-toned, cloudy, gray eyes. Tara Fujioka could definitely see the perfect resemblance of Ayano to her half-Japanese and half-Greek mother, Yoshino. Her unknown father, on the other hand, was assumed to be full Japanese; however, this hasn't been confirmed, which is why Ayano was given the last name of her mother as remembered by Tara: Nicolaou.

"So, what's in the sealed envelope?" Ayano finally broke the silence.

"I do not know," Tara answered. "I never opened it for the sake of whatever confidentiality this holds." She handed the document to Ayano, who seemed to be hesitant in accepting. "Why don't you check what's inside? Your mother said it holds your future."

"I see," Ayano sighed. "Although, I am very curious: how were you able to keep me away from my potential adopters?"

"Remember when we played hide-and-seek at random times?" Tara smiled.

That made sense. Ayano loved to play that game when she was little. She loved to hide in the same spot and not be found for about an hour, which ended up with her falling asleep and being found by Tara later. She had wondered why she was always the last one to be found, even though the spot wasn't that difficult to locate.

"I made sure that you never met any new families," she apologetically confessed.

"How cruel…" Ayano was saddened by her statement. "... and illegal," she mumbled.

"I know. I was selfish… and I'm sorry," expressed by Tara.

Ayano stared at the envelope, and finally accepted it. "Fujioka-san, will you check the content of this document with me? I'm quite afraid of how it will change my life once I open it."

"Of course, Ayano," Tara reassured. "You've endured so much; you lost your fellow orphan friends as they get adopted one by one. I made you believed that no one wanted you since you never got adopted, and now I suddenly revealed about your mother." She continued, "I will give you all of my support that you ever need."

Ayano smiled, keeping her composure and emotion calm as she started tearing the flap of the large envelope. Ayano held her breath as she reached for the documents inside. She laid the contents of the envelope on the table, looked at Tara as if seeking for a cue on what to do next, then looked back at the papers.

The very first page of the document is a letter from her mother:

 _ **To My Dearest Ayano,**_

 _ **First of all, happy 17th birthday to my only daughter that I love so much. I hope that you created many memories while growing up. I am very sorry for abandoning you; but I know that my great friend, Tara, has taken a great amount of care of you and gave you the support that I could not provide. Enclosed in this envelope is your future: an account named to you that has enough money to secure your living for the next ten years, and a house gifted to you, which originally belonged to my parents. Please seek for Agatha Nicolaou, my sister, so she can help you claim these inheritance. She should now be residing in a town named Namimori. When you meet her, she will become your guardian. Finish high school, go to college, and become a professional at a career that you have found or will find passion about.**_

 _ **Please do not seek for me. Live a happy and normal life. For me. And for your grandfather.**_

 _ **Love,**_

 _ **Yoshino**_

Ayano immediately closed her eyes as soon as a single tear escaped after reading the letter, as if whatever painful situation her mother went through resonated through the abandoned daughter. Why does her mother not want to be found?

Just what in the world is her family's history?

* * *

"Surprisingly it was quite easy to find information about your aunt, Agatha," Tara continued, "She's a surgeon at a hospital in Namimori. I just contacted her 10 minutes ago and told her to expect you later today. Do you have everything that you need with you?"

It had been two days since the big revelation on Ayano's 17th birthday. She was now preparing to travel and visit her aunt whom she has never met before.

"Yes I do, thank you for your help Fujioka-san," Ayano bowed down and made an about face to exit Tara's office.

"Ayano-chan..."

"Yes?" the girl halted her steps and turned around.

"Namimori is a 4-hour train ride..." the older voiced out with concern.

"I know…" the teenager smiled. "I will be careful and I will call you every hour."

"... Also don't forget to eat the lunch and snacks I made for you," a motherly reminder which made Ayano run towards Tara and give her a hug. "You know that this is your first time going out by yourself right?"

"I know."

"You don't have to go alone."

"I know."

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" a concerned Tara voiced.

"I will be fine. Will you tell me more about my mother when I come back?" said Ayano under the ruffles of Tara's dress shirt.

"Of course, my darling."

In reality, the teenager was a little bit afraid to learn the truth about her mother and about her real identity, in general.

* * *

What do you think?

Warning: Since this is a HibariOC fic, the development will be slow but NOT too slow, timeline-wise. I am trying to depict Hibari as accurately as possible and not make him OOC.

I will remind you again that I have written up to until chapter 8 of this fic, but I will release the chapters every 2 and a half days for reasons stated in the beginning of my author's note.

Please review!

Thank you!


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, Itsyoursis-Artemis here! I know I said I was going to release this in two days but I realized that chapters 1 and 2 are basically prelude/introduction! I'd rather release the intros **early** first before I make my readers wait for the main plot.

So without further ado, enjoy!

* * *

About four hours later, the 17-year old girl finally arrived in Namimori town in the middle of the day. The warm air of late May welcomed the countryside girl upon exiting the subway station. Her sense of fashion which included a baseball cap while her hair in a ponytail; a baggy, white v-neck t-shirt tucked in a light-colored denim shorts; and a gray, fly-knit Nike shoes definitely concealed her rural image. Fashion was something that Ayano has been interested in pursuing since the age of ten. Thankfully, Vesta house had access to internet, where she obtained inspiration and ideas. Her forte in fashion allowed her to be able to confidently blend in with the Namimori people.

It didn't take her a long time to find the house of her aunt. The address was located at an affluent neighborhood in Namimori. Therefore, she assumed that her aunt must be rich as she stood in front of a black, estate gate. The huge front yard had a unique work of garden art with well-maintained rich floral combinations that Ayano could identify such as dahlias, marigolds, and lilacs. The architecture of the house was evidently western; although she couldn't tell as she lacked the knowledge regarding styles of architecture. However, there were two statues at the opposite side of the front porch, just before the stairs that led to the front double door. The statues reminded Ayano of the famous renaissance sculptures that she learned about in her history class. Despite remembering this, she still failed to realize that the design of the property was heavily inspired by a European style.

The teenager rang the gate bell. Three rings later, the gate suddenly opened inward. She seeked for an instruction, yet there was no verbal invitation. She knew better not to enter an unknown territory. She stood still and waited for that invitation. One minute later, a feminine voice from a speaker by the gate finally spoke.

"I don't bite. Just come in."

Ayano was startled, but there was something about the voice that made her trust and accept the invitation. She slowly walked towards the house. The front door opened and she was met by a female adult with a wavy mid-length caramel hair. She was wearing black, pointed, closed-toed heels, a black pencil skirt with red blouse tucked in and a long, white, lab coat over. Her fair complexion completed her foreign look.

"I've been expecting you for many years, Ayano."

"And you must be...Agatha," Ayano answered back with slight uncertainty.

The older adult stared at the teenager nonchalantly, then she replied. "Come in. We'll talk inside."

As Ayano stepped inside, the adult signaled to follow her. They walked until they reached the kitchen which was situated at the back corner of the house. The woman in the lab coat handed Ayano a glass of water, then the two sat down by the dining table. Ayano was about to initiate the conversation but the older woman beat her to it.

"You look SO much like my sister."

"I take that statement as a confirmation, that you are my aunt Agatha," Ayano said, then quickly looked down, as Agatha's stare was starting to intimidate the teen.

There was a long pause.

"Indeed, I am Agatha. However, for the 'aunt' part, I am—kind of—your aunt… Yoshino is my half-sister, so I guess, that makes me your half-aunt?"

 _Half-sister?_ Ayano wondered. _Does that mean that there was a some type of affair?_ Ayano mentally noted this possibility. Agatha continued, as if on cue she knew exactly what her niece was thinking about.

"My Greek dad—your grandpa—fell in love with Yoshino's mom—your grandma—when he went to Japan to establish a some type of business relations with some dude. Mind you, he was only 20 when he met your grandma. Then you can probably guess what happened next. Your grandma developed feelings, they got married, yada yada… And if you are wondering about me, I was merely a product of a one night stand with a prostitute before your grandpa went to Japan."

Agatha finished her very short, unenthusiastic, narrative with a sip of her coffee. She scrutinized Ayano once more, then finally spoke in a more serious note. "You know, I'm very glad that you got almost all of your attributes from your mom, and your eyes from your grandpa Dimitri. Nothing about you reminds me of your despicable, useless dad."

"My dad? You know my dad?" Ayano asked in a genuine tone.

"Well, no, not really," her aunt scratched her head. "All I know is that your dad—he's Japanese by the way if you were wondering—was an alcoholic piece of shit, who tried to lock your mom up when she tried to break up with him, then your grandpa found out about how your dad abused your mom—" Agatha suddenly paused, and decided not to reveal the rest of the story.

"My grandpa found out that my dad abused my mom, then what happened?"

"Oh I don't know, it's very dramatic, I wasn't really there, you know, I was in med school, studying."

"Oh… I see," the teen said with a gloom on her face.

The truth was, Agatha couldn't just reveal to Ayano that Dimitri killed her abusive dad and made it look like an accident. It was not the right time to say that to the parentless girl.

"It's your time to talk," Agatha demanded. "You've been quiet this whole time."

"Well, I don't really know where to start," Ayano confessed.

"Start from where you are from and why you are here today."

"Uhm, okay. I grew up in the House of Vesta which is an orphanage in a small, rural area in Toyama. Recently, the head of the orphanage, Tara Fujioka, revealed to me that my mom abandoned me when I was a baby. They were close friends since middle school, I guess."

 _Oh...Tara... Yoshino's best friend…_ Agatha reminisced.

"My mom apparently gave me inheritance that I was supposed to claim once I turned 17," Ayano revealed a folder and placed it on the table. "I am not really interested in my inheritance. I just want to know about who and where I came from."

Ayano wasn't lying. She only wanted to learn about her mother. To her, this meant that she was not an abandoned nobody; she felt that her existence actually had a value. Agatha reached for the folder and looked through the documents that stated Ayano's inheritance.

"So basically Dimitri Nicolaou's gift to his first grandchild, is the title of this house," she pointed down.

The sudden news caught Ayano off-guard. It took the teenager ten seconds to recover from it. "This house! Oh no, I can't possibly," she refused.

"I will still be living in this house even if you claim the title," Agatha pointed. "This was my home too. Besides, the last time I talked to my sister, she asked me to be your guardian and to watch over you once I met you."

"She asked you that? Where is mom? What actually happened to her?"

"Oh, I don't know. She moved out after she finished college and never contacted us again," Agatha revealed with a slight, angry tone. "Honestly… I have zero idea on what happened to that woman. All I got was a random call from her several years ago about expecting to meet you."

"Did anyone at least attempt to find her?" she wished Agatha would say yes.

"Your grandpa did, but he's been missing in action since then. The last time I saw him was before he left: he told me to continue with my studies and never to get involved in his business."

Ayano was saddened by the lack of solid answers she seeked for. The two became quiet for several minutes before Ayano spoke.

"I… want to move here," she firmly declared.

Before, she was a teenager seeking for something she couldn't explain.

Now, she finally found that something.

It was a goal.

Ayano finally found a goal.

She wanted to find her mother.

She knew her mother wanted her to be safe and sound.

But now, it is her daughter's wish to find her safe and sound.

* * *

 **There yah go, Ayano is moving to Namimori and going on a hunt!**

 **I posted a teaser for chapter 3 on my tumblr side blog, if you want to check it out, please head to my profile as the link is there.**

 **I will also post more teasers there as I have written up to 8 chapters. So stay tuned!**

 **Please review and I will see you in 2 days!**

 **ps: Also please let me know if I have any spelling,punctuation, and grammar errors on my writing, I will quickly fix them!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, Itsyoursis-Artemis here! Here's the third chapter as I promised to deliver. Warning: Since this a HibarixOC fic, development between the two will be tedious. Please let me know if it's too slow or if the pace is good enough considering how Hibari's character is.**

 **Please review, it boosts up my confidence :)**

* * *

"Welcome to your last, first day of a beautiful spring season of your high school career!" the first period teacher announced right after writing his name on the board. "Today, when I call your name, please respond if you are here (obviously), and then tell me a really interesting fact about yourself. I want us all to get to know each other."

The teacher scrolled down the attendance sheet. One by one, students shared hidden talents, hobbies, rare experiences, etc. Some were detached from the activity, while others were enthusiastic. One person made the class to burst into laughter for a hilarious fact that was shared.

And then it was a certain transfer student's turn.

The teacher paused while looking at her last name. He scratched the side of his forehead. He looked up and examined the classroom then looked back at the attendance sheet. He finally broke the silence.

"I apologize in advance if I mispronounce your last name badly… Ayano.. Ni..Nikola..owu?" wincing his eyes.

"Here," Ayano answered. She then stood up.

"How do you pronounce your last name, Miss?"

"It's Ni-Ko-Lauh, Sir…"

"Noted. You have a non-Japanese last name despite you looking **very** Japanese to me," the teacher observed. "That has to be interesting, ain't it?"

The whole class turned around to take a glimpse at her. To the students who were far away from Ayano's seat, they were seeing a normal Japanese girl who was exhibiting a mysterious hint of allure. However, to those who were in close proximity, they could definitely notice a foreign aspect on Ayano's visual.

Ayano exchanged glances with a few people in the class. At first she didn't really know what to share. She then finally decided speak.

"I guess many of you are interested about my nationality?" she asked the class.

There were slight nods; others continued to watch her.

"I have...some European blood in me," she revealed.

"Woahhhhh…. By how much?" the teacher curiously asked.

"I'm about a quarter Greek. My mother is half-Japanese and half-Greek while my father is Japanese."

The whole class bursted in a soft 'woah', which signaled Ayano to sit down. She didn't expect that she was going to get such a reaction.

 _Great, now I'm perceived as a foreigner,_ she sarcastically sighed under her breath.

After four hours, cliques regrouped during lunch to talk about their spring break. Being a transfer student, Ayano didn't have a circle to eat lunch with. She was quite nervous to make a friend and cowardly wished that someone would try to approach her instead.

She was about take a first bite of her lunch when a figure suddenly casted a shadow in front of her desk.

"Hi there!" a tall, cheerful girl with a black pixie haircut greeted.

Ayano's mouth remained partially open for three seconds before she realized that a girl who was not from her class just approached her. "Uhm... hello," she responded, then slightly bowed.

"I've never seen you before. I've been a member of the student body government for two years so I know most if not, all faces of our graduating class," the short-haired girl said. "Are you a transfer student? What's your name?"

"Yes I am. I'm Ayano Nicolaou, and you are—" she paused and waited for the short-haired girl to introduce herself.

"I'm Mina Todou! It's nice to meet you!"

"It's nice to meet you too, Todou-san," she smiled.

"Oh please! Let's drop the formalities!" Mina lightly patted Ayano's shoulder.

"But we just met," Ayano softly chuckled.

"Then call me Mina-chan, if you must insist using formalities," she sighed. "Can I call you Yano-chan in return? It sounds super cute!"

"Sounds good, Mina-chan. You can call me that, it's fine," the transfer student smiled as she finally made a friend.

"Well, I'm going to go now as I have officer duties. Are you doing anything after school?"

"Not really, why?"

"Perfect! I'll give you a school tour after school, yes?" Mina excitedly asked.

"I would appreciate that," Ayano happily accepted.

"Cool, see you around!"

Ayano waved goodbye as her new friend left the room. She was glad that Mina didn't question her last name. To be honest, she didn't like to explain her last name as she lacked the historical knowledge of her own heritage. Ayano just wanted to be treated just like everyone else and not like a foreigner due to the 'Nicolaou' tag.

* * *

The rest of the day went by smoothly. Ayano met with Mina just outside of her classroom after her last class was over. The "tour" took about an hour. And within this short time frame, Ayano learned that Mina was a one, big, talkative, and bubbly girl. Mina never stopped talking about each stop that they made, as if she was selling Ayano the school. Every bits of pieces of information were covered: the pool, sports, student clubs, rush hour in the cafeteria, the seating chart in the cafeteria based on stereotypical cliques such as the jocks, the "cool" kids, the weird kids, etc. Even fun facts about the school were not forgotten in her little tour. After the tour, Ayano was mentally exhausted, as if she had just run half a marathon.

"This school is a lot more active than it looked like," Ayano commented.

"Right? I'm planning for our year to be one of the best. I've worked so hard with improving the school's student life!" the short-haired girl excitedly blurted.

"Well Mina-chan, I can definitely see the fruits of your efforts. Speaking of that, what's your position in the student body council?"

"I'm a senior representative. I've always been a representative since freshman year and I L-O-V-E it," she widely smiled. "I love communicating with students and representing their opinions, concerns, or suggestions to the council."

"You're amazing Mina-chan," Ayano complimented.

"Aw thanks girl! What about you? What clubs do you plan to join?"

Ayano originally planned not to join any; she planned to use her available free time to collect information that would help find her mother. There wasn't even a fashion club in the club brochure that Mina gave to her. However, now that she heard about the school's lively environment, she might reconsider.

"I actually, don't know, yet."

"Then what do you think of making our last year a BLAST with me?" Mina suggested.

"That sounds fun actually."

"Then join the student council and work with me!" Mina suddenly offered.

"The student council? Don't you need an election to have a position? Isn't it too late for me to join?" Ayano was flabbergasted upon her friend's suggestion.

"There's an open position that doesn't need to be voted on by the students: historian! Our historian participated in a study abroad program this year so he won't be here for a year."

Suddenly, a male voice behind startled the girls which made them halt their steps on the hallway.

"Students are not allowed to roam around the school's premises at around this time. I thought you would know that already, senior representative Mina Todou," proclaimed a certain figure wearing a red armband.

"... Unless it is for an after-school club activity which is what I—as a member of the student body government—am doing, by giving this new transfer student a tour on her first day here in Namimori High," Mina turned around to answer. Ayano turned around and noticed a slight fear in Mina's tone.

"I don't recall school tour as an after-school activity."

Mina scratched her head. She kind of knew the pathway that the head of Disciplinary Committee would take whenever he patrolled the school ground. She was so sure that they would be able to avoid this guy at the end of the day.

"Ok, listen, Hibari-san… I was just showing Yano-chan the great 'wonders' of Namimori high. She's a transfer student, and as the senior representative, I think it is best for her to be familiar with the rules and other stuff about our school **as soon as possible,** to avoid pissing you off in the future."

There was still that slight fear in her tone that Ayano could sense. _I don't like this,_ Ayano mentally expressed. _Why is he treating us as if we just committed a crime?_

More importantly, why would she need to learn the rules "to avoid pissing him off in the future"?

Kyoya Hibari, the head of the Disciplinary Committee, made an eye contact with Ayano, to which she responded with a slight bow.

"Hn, leave immediately when you're done."

Hibari walked past by them, and upon passing by Ayano, he gave her a glare. Something about his glare prevented Ayano from breaking the eye contact.

Once the certain guy was out of their sight, Mina let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Who is he?" Ayano asked.

"That, is the infamous Kyoya Hibari, head of the Disciplinary Committee. Also, he hates crowding."

"He sure talks as if he's the boss of us," Ayano expressed with an exasperated tone. "I don't like it."

"Ho ho, girl trust me, no one does. But he does beat up students whom he thinks are breaking his discipline, and not even the principal can stop him. So for your own safety, just try to avoid him at all cost," Mina pleaded.

"He beats up students? Isn't that wrong? How did he get so much influence and power over this school?"

"Only god knows," Mina shrugged. "So about the offer, are you interested in joining the student council? I can offer you a referral!"

"I appreciate your offer," Ayano responded, "but do let me think about it first."

"Okay! I'm afraid that my tour is over, so if you have any other questions, I'll give you my phone number."

The two exchanged contact information, and then separated on their own ways. Before Ayano disappeared from Mina's eyesight, the latter yelled.

"By the way, you have such an EXOTIC last name!"

The former couldn't help but laugh at her statement.

* * *

 **As I said before, I will published the next chapter in two days. For the mean time, please check the tumblr blog for this fic posted on my profile. I post teasers and other stuff related about my _Safe and Sound_ there.**

 **Please please review!**

 **Also tell me if I have grammatical mistakes, I will fix them immediately!**

 **I'll see you in two days!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello, Itsyoursis-Artemis here! As promised, here's the new chapter!**

 **Please review! Let me know what you think!**

 ***I do not own KHR, Amano Akira does.**

* * *

 _***Flashback to the day after Ayano visited her aunt for the first time***_

 _Tara Fujioka's eyes widened as Ayano delivered an unexpected news upon returning from her trip to Namimori. The fact that the teenager was the first to request to move out meant that the girl Tara raised and loved for 17 years had finally acquired the strength, bravery, and maturity needed to be ready to be emancipated._

 _It was a statewide law for orphan houses that the unadopted orphans who turned 18 must move out and either: live in foster homes or be on their own. Ayano hated the idea of living in foster homes. She didn't want to become an unnecessary member of an another family. Therefore, when Tara Fujioka made a promise to support Ayano with living expenses in college, the teenager gladly accepted it. She promised her supposedly benefactor to repay her once she became successful in her career._

 _However, with the revelation of the Nicolaou inheritance, Ayano decided not to be a burden to Tara. Tara never viewed her as a burden though. But, Ayano knew that sooner or later she would have to be on her own, like a deer that was raised in a sanctuary being inevitably freed to the wilderness._

 _Initially, she was going to decline her inheritance. She didn't need the Nicolaou money as Tara had promised to be her benefactor in college. She didn't need the title of her grandfather's house as she was going to live in the dormitory. Furthermore, the fact that her aunt still lived in the house put a pressure on the 17-year old girl, as she didn't want to kick her aunt out._

 _However, her missing mother had a wish._

 _Was it a final wish?_

 _What if it was?_

 _What if she was already dead?_

 _Would Ayano fail to live her mother's last wish?_

 _What if her mom was still alive? Where would she be then? Ayano wanted to know what happened to her mother. And the first step would be to reside in the house she was entitled to. Agatha had agreed to help her find her mother especially since she had in her possession, Yoshino's diary._

" _We still have about 6 months to spend together before I move out," Ayano suggested. "I still need to finish 11th grade so I can easily transfer to Namimori high."_

" _While I'm saddened that you will soon depart us soon, I will happily support your decision." Tara smiled. She was happy that Ayano had grown into a strong, independent woman._

" _Now that I'm back, will you tell me more about your times with my mom? No rush, of course. We have six months," the teenager pointed which made Tara chuckled._

" _Of course. You see, your mom was such a hardworking college student one could aspire to be…"_

 _***End of Flashback***_

* * *

"Congrats! You are now the historian of the student council!" Mina clapped, as the two girls walked toward the student council room to attend Ayano's first ever council meeting.

Ayano accepted Mina's offer to take the historian job, and it took them three days to approve her. She was interviewed by the president and the secretary of the council, and her spot was finally guaranteed by Mina's reference.

The reason she accepted the historian job was because, well, why not. She wanted to make the best out of her last year. Besides, her job did sound fun and laid back: capturing moments with a lense. Her perks included free passes (and even backstage passes) to school activities and sports events.

Basically, her job was to be a photographer. It was kind of redundant, as a yearbook* club already existed. However, she would be the supervisor of the club. If the club needed an advice or something, they would go to Ayano first. Her position was not as important as any other officers, as the council could function without a historian, but she would be included in the voting quorum, therefore, holding a vote and an opinion in any student council discussion matters.

The meeting lasted about an hour. They reviewed a rough draft of the activities that were going to occur in the next three months. An emphasis on the club fair was given due to how crowded the school ground would get during the tabling session, where clubs recruit new members. The council discussed and set up a layout on which tables and location each clubs would get, the emergency exit route, the set-up/clean-up form that the clubs had to fill out by next week, etc. There were no objections during the meeting, which was why it went by smoothly.

"I need someone to submit these papers to the disciplinary committee for them to review," the president announced.

Ayano immediately noticed how everyone's faces became restless.

"Every. Single. Time. " The president complained that no one out of the ten people in the room volunteered.

"Can't help it. Hibari-san is so scary he sucks the energy out of you even if you only spend five seconds with him," the secretary shrugged.

"Let the newbie do it," suggested by the treasurer.

Everyone turned around to look at Ayano. Ayano looked back at Mina and mouthed, _me?_

"Stop it guys, let's not haze our new member," Mina sighed. "If ya'll don't have balls then I will unfortunately volunteer."

"No, it's fine. I'll do it." Ayano raised her hand.

She didn't want to leave a bad impression on the other council members for not completing a simple task. She didn't perceive it as a haze. She didn't understand what was so dangerous about submitting papers to a fellow student.

Or maybe she was doing it to gain acceptance from the council. Maybe she wanted them to think that she was a reliable girl. Of course, she wasn't going to be their little servant; she just wanted them to think that she was more capable than being a historian.

"Okay Nicolaou-san, here are the papers. Tell them that you are a new member of the student council, and that the documents are needed to be reviewed and approved by Hibari-san," the president instructed. "Meeting is now dismissed."

The rest of the members quickly packed their things and headed out, as some of them were athletes who had to attend practice, while the others worked a part-time job. Mina approached Ayano to give her more instructions.

"I wish I could accompany you, but I have my volleyball practice that I need to attend," Mina put her hands on Ayano's shoulders. "So listen carefully, if you see one of Hibari's subordinates walking around, you can just give it to them and tell them to relay the message to Hibari-san. It would be better if you give it to Kusakabe-san, he's usually patrolling the same floor as the disciplinary room."

"I'll be fine, don't worry," Ayano reassured. "Hibari-san might be intimidating, but I'm not that afraid of him."

"But here's the thing: at least try to be a little submissive, because one molecule of opposition could set the devil off."

"Just go to your practice, you'll be late," Ayano smiled. "I promise I'll survive."

The fearless girl arrived on the fourth floor of the building. She was hoping to see at least one of Hibari's subordinates; but alas, they were nowhere to be found. She looked around for Tetsuya Kusakabe, whom she met once when she submitted her student transfer form before the semester started. He was also nowhere to be found.

Ayano stood in front of the disciplinary committee room. She took a deep breath and prayed that Kusakabe was in there and not Hibari.

She knocked.

"Come in," said the familiar, cold voice.

 _Ah, great, luck wasn't on my side today,_ she mumbled before she opened the door.

Ayano opened the door and met the certain skylark's apathetic gaze, who was organizing papers on his desk. She closed the door behind her and commenced with her introduction.

"I am Ayano Nicolaou, a new member of the student body council. I was tasked to give you these drafts about the upcoming events for this semester... for your approval."

"The transfer student that the senior representative tried to protect joined a herd of herbivores," Hibari recalled as he finished organizing his desk.

 _Herbivores?_ Ayano took another breath. _Whatever_. "Is there a problem with that?"

She walked toward Hibari's desk and handed him the documents.

"This is the first time a student council member personally handed something to me," Hibari took the documents from the fearless girl's hand, then continued, "instead of relaying to my vice-chairman like a bunch of cowards they are."

 _Uhm. Okay?_ "Well I'm different from them." She lightly raised her left eyebrow.

To Hibari, her response translated as a challenge.

"What are you implying then, herbivore?" Hibari slowly rose from his seat and glared at Ayano.

Ayano suddenly felt a cold chill. Hibari was spilling bloodlust which definitely made her slightly feel uncomfortable.

 _No, Ayano, do not be scared of this man._

"Nothing, Hibari-san. Have a good day."

She bowed and walked fast out of the room. She collected her things in the council room and headed home. While walking, Ayano couldn't help but to replay in her head her small exchange of words with Hibari.

 _Did I say something wrong?_ Ayano thought. _He looked like he was about to fight me._

* * *

**Yearbook: a book which contained photos that document, list, or highlight the school's year

* * *

 **I will post the next chapter in three days. Actually, I already have it written (In fact, I have written up to chapter 9). I will be on vacation in the next two days and I want to enjoy my time.**

 **It's slowly developing, but be patient, I promise we will eventually get there!**

 **Also, if I have grammatical mistakes, please tell me, I will quickly fix them!**

 **Please review! and I'll see you in 3 days!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, Itsyoursis-Artemis here! Sorry for the long wait, so here's the new chapter.**

 **This is kind of a short chapter, so I apologize. The build up is slow, but we will get there I promise!**

 **Please review, I want to know what you guys are thinking :)**

* * *

Two weeks had passed since the Nicolaou girl transferred to Namimori high. Within this short time frame, she became the unofficial "deliverer" of the student council. Everyone but her had part-time jobs or sports practice after their meetings, so they "could not" volunteer to deliver anything to the disciplinary committee. Therefore, she didn't mind distributing documents to the disciplinary committee room. After all, she was not terrified of Hibari or his subordinates.

In these two weeks, she has encountered Hibari four times. To ease the tension, Ayano thought she just needed to get on his good side by trying to initiate a brief but friendly conversation with him. So far, her attempts have failed to "ease" anything. Her genuine "how are you?" would receive a "my well-being is none of your business" or "like you actually care, leave me alone" types of response. He could be rude to people, but they could not be rude to him. She didn't understand his logic.

Ayano was on her way to return to her homeroom after a bathroom trip. She suddenly heard footsteps that were ascending in volume. As she turned around the corner, she immediately realized that she was about to crash onto a running group of students, but she reacted a second too late as she met a force that sent her falling backwards.

"I AM SO SORRY!" shrieked by a spiky, brown-haired boy named Sawada Tsunayoshi, who accidentally bit his lower lip and was now bleeding.

"OI woman! How dare you hurt the Tenth! Apologize to him!" the silver-haired boy demanded.

Ayano was not pleased by the situation. _Are you kidding me?_ she mentally scowled. She was the victim here and the one who got sent flying backwards that could have possibly injured her back. And then this boy blamed her for it?

"Come on now Gokudera, we were the ones running recklessly in the hallway," the tall, black-haired boy confessed. "I'm sorry miss, we didn't mean to hurt you." He offered his hand, but Ayano respectfully declined.

She suddenly felt a sharp pain on her left wrist, which indicated that she must have twisted it due to the force of impact upon landing on the floor.

"Are the herbivores that weak they already gave up running?" the head of the disciplinary committee caught up to the trio.

"HIEEE! Hibari-san! We are sorry! We'll go back to our classroom!" Tsuna begged for his life.

The skylark noticed Ayano, who was still on the floor, and deduced that one of the herbivores must have bumped onto her which made her fall. He also noticed the way that the she was holding her left wrist, which was now exhibiting a bruise discoloration.

"I will bite you to death for disrupting my discipline," as he glared at the Vongola trio.

 _Bite them to death?_ Ayano was baffled by his peculiar statement.

As the three boys ran for their lives, Hibari started to chase them. However, he was stopped by Ayano (who was still on the floor) when she grabbed his ankle.

"Woman, what do you think are you doing?" he hissed.

"Stopping you, of course, from 'biting them to death'... whatever that pertains to." Ayano got up and faced the irritated disciplinary chairman. "Hibari-san, whatever they did to piss you off, I really doubt it's big enough for them to receive a death penalty."

"Mind your own business." Hibari moved to the side, but she then blocked him. She looked at him with an adamant stare, challenging his glare.

"Are you defying me, herbivore?"

"I'm not scared of you... or your tonfas."

"Would you rather I add another broken wrist to your collection?" he threatened her.

"Hibari-san, you shouldn't make me worth any of your breath," Ayano sighed.

He was now very pissed. His preys just escaped, and now this girl questioned his authority. He was definitely fighting his urge to bite Ayano to death, but weaklings were indeed not worth his breath and time. He glared more at her, but he couldn't help but notice how there was something about the way she stared back at him. She was defiant, but at the same time, there was an acknowledgement: an acknowledgement of who was in power. She was respectful, yet daring: a contradiction that the skylark didn't understand.

"Lunch break is about to end in five minutes, so I need to go back. Would you excuse me, Hibari-san," Ayano politely bowed.

"Do you think I will let you off the hook easily?" Hibari spoke.

Before Ayano could respond, a familiar tall boy interrupted between the two and pulled Ayano to go behind him.

"Hibari-san, I don't think it's nice to hurt a girl," the tall boy cautioned.

"Yamamoto Takeshi, I don't think it was wise of you to come back."

Yamamoto scratched his head and sighed. "How about this, Hibari, I promise to have a one-time duel with you. You choose the day, and let this little miss go?"

Hibari untensed his shoulders. "Interesting. You seemed to have learned from the baby how to talk properly." Hibari looked at Ayano once more, then continued, "Hn. You better not break your word." He walked away and disappeared from Ayano's sight.

"Are you ok, miss?" Yamamoto asked.

"I'm fine, thank you." Ayano answered. "But are you really going to fight Hibari-san?"

"Maybe, maybe not," he chuckled. "I'm glad I came back, he was about to hurt you! I'm Yamamoto Takeshi, by the way."

"I couldn't tell what his next action was going to be, but I'm glad I wasn't hurt. Thank you, Yamamoto-san. I'm Ayano." she bowed.

"It's nice to meet you. Well, I'll head back to class. Have a nice day!"

Ayano bowed again then ran as she realized her next class was about to start in a minute.

* * *

"Oh. My. God. Girl, you dodged a bullet there! How are you not afraid of that dude?"

It was after school as Mina chatted with Ayano in the infirmary while the latter's sprained wrist was being treated.

"I acknowledge that he might be a bully-"

"HE IS A BULLY." Mina interrupted.

"Whether he is or not, no one should be fearful of a bully, right?" Ayano pointed. "Fear gives them power."

"Sure, Miss-goody-pants, but Yano-chan, that DUDE almost hurt you, like he was willing to fight a harmless girl!" the short-haired girl warned.

The school nurse finished bandaging Ayano's wrist and instructed her not to move her injured wrist too much until it's healed. The two walked out of the nurse office and continued chatting before they parted.

"It was a good thing that Yamamoto-san helped me," Ayano giggled in relief.

"Yamamoto...as in, Yamamoto Takeshi?!" Mina gasped.

"Yes. Do you know him, Mina-chan?"

"Ohhhhhh giiiirllll, he's like, a really really popular, and a HOT—emphasis on hot—athlete!"

"Okaayyy…?" Ayano drawled. She'd admit, Yamamoto was indeed, attractive and had a nice built. But it wasn't like she's interested in him.

"Ghurrlllll, he's got the hots for you! Maybe love on first sight?" Mina smirked.

"What does that statement even mean?" she pushed her friend jokingly.

"What I said. Anyways, gutta go to my volleyball practice. Be safe on your way home!"

* * *

Ayano got home, and noticed a pair of shoes in the walkway, which meant that her aunt was home. Her aunt heard the door, peeked from the kitchen, and greeted her niece. She told her aunt about the crazy day she had in school, to which her aunt responded with:

"Hibari Kyoya?"

"Yes, him. You know him? Why is he so popular?"

"Well, his authority spans not only around the school, but also the whole Namimori town," Agatha revealed. "Outside of school, he becomes the leader of a disciplinary gang. He even has a control over the CEO of the hospital I work for."

The teenager couldn't believe what she just heard. She knew that anything about Hibari should never be made into her business. However, the Nicolaou teenager—who happened to be fond of mystery—labeled Hibari as mysterious which now made her extremely intrigued of him.

"How did he get everyone to submit to him?"

"I don't know. Rumors say he's a member of one of the most powerful mafia in the world. Sounds absurd huh?" Agatha ridiculed. "I wouldn't be surprised if he is indeed in a mafia."

Of course, the two ladies didn't know that Hibari was indeed a member of the powerful Vongola mafia. And so were the three boys that Ayano met today. Whether Ayano will learn that the easy or the hard way would depend on how she would behave in the future.

Agatha changed the subject to her sister's diary. "How's it going with the whole mapping thing?"

"It's going slow, since my mom wrote a diary that spanned through 3 years. Because of school and my council, it will take some time to complete it."

Ayano had been reading through her mother's diary and mapping out a timeline. The diary started when her mother started college, at roughly 18 years of age. Her diary, which contained an almost everyday entries, was three notebooks long. Ayano was reading every single detail thoroughly and making sure she didn't miss a small detail that could serve as a clue about her mother's whereabouts.

It was amazing how her mother's writings corresponded with Tara's college stories.

* * *

 **Next chapter is what I believe where the pace start to pick up. So please anticipate it.**

 **Just a reminder, I have a tumblr blog for this fanfic, and I post other fun infos and teasers there, so if you want to check it out, visit my profile as I posted the link there.**

 **As usual, I will see you in two days!**

 **PS: If there's any grammatical errors let me know, I will fix them immediately!**

 **Please Review :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, Itsyoursis-Artemis! As promised, here is the new chapter!**

 **To reviewer Etha: I actually went back and checked the word count, and it was actually not that short, but thank you for the review!**

 **To reviewer Peristeria: Thank you for giving this story a try! :D**

* * *

"Mina-chan, what are you doing on the 18th?" Ayano asked as the duo ate their lunch.

The short-haired girl checked the calendar on her phone to see what day the 18th fell on. It fell on a Sunday.

"That's in two days! I'll be on a volleyball camp in Tokyo this weekend. Why did you ask?"

"Oh, I see. I was going to invite you to the Wisteria Festival they're having just outside of Namimori town."

"A flower festival! That sounds so much fun! But unfortunately, my team will be practicing with other schools in the Tokyo division," pouted Mina.

"That's ok!" Ayano chuckled into her hand. "There are more upcoming flower festivals that we could plan to go to."

"That's true," agreed the volleyball player as she reached for her water bottle. "So are you going alone this Sunday then?"

Actually, the long-haired girl originally planned to attend it alone. There was an entry in her mother's diary about the Wisteria Festival, highlighting a "magical" event at night that served to conclude the festival. According to the diary, her mother would go there alone every year, and she recommended that going solo would be better if ' _one needed to rejuvenate their inner spirit_ '.

The teenager was not exactly sure what that statement meant. She wanted to go to the festival to acquire inspiration and ideas for the fashion sketches she was going to design on her free time. Additionally, she wanted to check out the supposedly "magical" night event that her mother refused to elaborate in her diary because ' _there are no words to describe it._ '

However, if she decided to go to the night event, she wouldn't be home until late at night. She didn't feel safe to walk back home alone… in the dark. Tara always reminded her to travel in pairs if she ever went out at night.

She could ask Hibari to accompany her.

 _Wait. Hold a minute._

She lightly flicked her own forehead. Why did that person even come up on her mind? She could have thought of her aunt, or even Yamamoto (whom she barely even talk to) about a companion this Sunday.

Furthermore, she couldn't understand why she's been thinking about that person. She admitted to herself that something about the tonfa-wielding boy was very intriguing. However, she strongly denied that she was _attracted_ to him. It was a foolish possibility. There was no way she would let her breath and thought be wasted on a _thug_. He was like a complicated puzzle that she refused to solve. Yet for some **inexplicable** reason, she kind of wanted to know his pieces.

It was not attraction. She called it, a mere _curiosity_.

"Hey Mina-chan," the Nicolaou girl hesitated. "What do you think will happen if I invite Hibari-san to accompany me to the Wisteria Festival?"

The short-haired girl was drinking water when she suddenly choked upon hearing her friend's deadly suggestion. It took her a few seconds to calm down before she grabbed her friend's shoulders and shook her violently.

"Did'cha hit your head or something, Yano-chan?!" Mina repeatedly tapped around her friend's head as if checking for an injury. She then placed her palm on Ayano's forehead to check her temperature. "Or do you have a fever?!"

"Let's just say… I might be serious about what I just said," the fearless girl teasingly shrugged.

"Was this just out of curiosity or were you really thinking on asking him on a DATE, out of any other boys you could have asked?" Mina facepalmed.

"Who said it was going to be a date? He's a mysterious guy. I was just highly curious on what he will say."

"First of all, that's definitely a date. Second, you've been _Hibari-san_ this _Hibari-san_ that at me lately so you're OBVIOUSLY attracted to him. So my question is, since when!?"

Ayano almost dropped her chopsticks upon hearing her friend's speculation. "I am **not** attracted to him," she frowned. "Besides, the worse case scenario is receiving a rejection, which is completely fine. I'm telling you I just want to see how he would react."

"NO. The worst case scenario is when he misunderstands your invitation, and you meet the ugly fate of his tonfas," the short-haired girl asserted.

Their conversation got interrupted when the bell rang which indicated that lunch period was over. The girls packed their lunch boxes away and headed back to their own homeroom. Before they separated, Mina uttered a one last comment.

"Wait, are you really going to ask him?"

Ayano smiled in response.

"Yano-chan, I feel like you like the thrill of living a dangerous life."

* * *

There was no council meeting on Fridays, so the determined Nicolaou searched for the certain red, armband-bearing, tonfa-wielding, boy. The first place she checked was the disciplinary room, but only Kusakabe was there. He told her that Hibari could be on the rooftop, as sometimes he would spend some time there after school before patrolling.

She climbed the stairs that led to the rooftop, and as soon as she reached for the doorknob, she halted her steps. She assessed the situation in her head and listed the possible outcomes of her little _experiment_. He could: 1. Accept her invitation (100% unlikely) 2. Refuse her (50% success) 3. Get pissed and bite her to death (50% likely). The second scenario would most likely happen. If somehow she accidentally turned the devil switch on, she would just have to run… for her life, and hopefully not trip on the stairs.

 _I'm just curious on how Hibari-san would react. It's not a date._

But if it's not a date, then how would he perceive it?

 _I'll make him think that it's just a friendly hangout thing._

Were they even friends?

Oddly enough, Ayano wasn't even nervous. This was why she was so sure she did not develop any feelings for Hibari. She didn't even blush when Mina made a comment about her being attracted to the chairman of the disciplinary committee. There was no heart-fluttering-whatsoever thing that she has seen in romance shows.

She opened the door and immediately saw her target lying down on the ground, using his arms to support his head. He noticed the long-haired girl entered the rooftop, which prompted him to sit up. She stood still to keep a great amount of distance between them.

"Students are not allowed on the rooftop, herbivore."

He slowly stood up and moved toward the railings to scan the ground below and see if most of the students were gone. His attention then got disrupted by Ayano's remark.

"You're a student, yet you're here."

"I can do whatever I want."

 _What kind of logic is that?—_ A question she could have blurted out but decided not to. She has impressively learned within three weeks the words that would pose a "threat" on the authority of the certain leader of the disciplinary committee.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Listen Hibari-san, I just have a quick question, then I'll disappear from your sight," she announced.

"Speak now, woman. Don't bore me," he responded while still examining the school ground from the roof top.

 _Here I go._ She took a deep breath to collect her composure.

"You should go to the Wisteria festival just outside of Namimori with me."

 _I'm stupid, that wasn't even a question,_ Ayano facepalmed herself mentally.

There was no reaction from him. He instead side-eyed her before he responded to her invitation.

"No. Is that all? Now leave."

The determined girl sighed. It was a flat-out rejection. He didn't even question her statement. She was about to leave when all of the sudden, her curious mind instantly came up with a plan.

She wanted to test if Hibari was the type of person who would make a girl wait for many hours. _This is a BAD idea,_ she mentally scolded herself. But the idea entertained her at the same time. You see, one of Ayano's unique personality traits was being curiously fearless. She easily would get entertained by whatever random idea she came up with. She then would test it to see the outcome, even if an idea was a terrible one.

Ayano took out her mini, sticky, notepad from her bag and wrote a few things on it. She then approached the uncooperative boy.

"I really think you will like it," she calmly said as she handed him the piece of paper. "We could just attend the night event, if you want. I wrote the address here and the location where I'll be at. Don't worry, there are spots we could go to avoid crowds."

For the first time, he noticed her persistence and was a little bit—just a little—surprised by her unwanted enthusiasm. However, it wasn't enough.

"Give it up. I'm not interested at whatever you're plotting, herbivore." He lightly pushed her hand away.

Ayano patted the sticky note onto his jacket because he didn't want to accept it. Afterwards, she quickly dashed away from him to exit the rooftop.

"I'll see you at around 6 pm this Sunday, I will wait for you and I **won't** move there until you arrive, so you better come!" She then finally disappeared out of his sight.

Hibari grabbed the piece of paper that was stuck on his jacket. He read the address, the time, and the messy sketch of what he assumed to be the map of the park.

 _Foolish girl_ , he mumbled.

* * *

Hibari completed his patrolling duty by early evening. He went back to the disciplinary room to resume the paperwork he left behind. There he encountered Kusakabe.

"I have finished patrolling the baseball and soccer field as well as the gymnasium," Kusakabe initiated. "Most of the athletes went home already, with a few who stayed back to do a clean up of their equipment."

The skylark nodded as a response. He placed the sticky note he received from Ayano on his table and sat down.

"I have also organized these documents with the highest priority on the top," the vice-chairman continued as he handed his leader a pile of papers. He then removed the completed paperwork from the desk to create a working space for Hibari to use. As he cleaned up his senior's desk, he detected a sticky note that he didn't remember using. He took the sticky note and read it.

"Kyoya-san, may I ask what this small note pertain to?"

The head of the disciplinary committee, who looked like he had already fallen asleep on his chair, slowly opened his eyes. "The new historian of the student council gave it to me. It is nothing but a foolish request."

The vice-chairman instantly knew whom his leader was talking about: Ayano Nicolaou. Kusakabe thought of the new transfer girl as a quiet yet outgoing, elegant girl. She usually would initiate the greeting whenever they pass by each other in the hallway. They would chat for no more than three minutes about their day before they continue with their own errands. He was astonished that Ayano fearlessly invited Hibari on a...date.

"Nicolaou-san asked you out on a date?"

The skylark was definitely not amused by his assistant's conjecture. "I don't associate myself with such a naive idea," he firmly responded.

"I understand. What would you like me to do with it?" his assistant asked.

Hibari stared at the paper once more and hesitated for several seconds, before he closed his eyes again.

"Leave it on my table."

* * *

 **So I already am five chapters ahead of the game, which means I already completed the next chapter. I want to know if you guys can guess correctly whether or not the skylark will go to the festival? Let me know what you think of it :D**

 **Also, if you detect any grammatical errors, please tell me and I will immediately fix them! (Sorry for always repeating this)**

 **I'll see you in 2 days!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello! It's yoursis-Artemis here! Sorry for the little delay, I didn't think I was going to be busy this week.**

 **To reader NotAnnie: awww thank you! That means a lot :)**

 **To reader Peristeria: I actually originally planned that he'd throw it away. But I changed it at the last minute and you'll see why in this chapter.**

 **Without further ado, here you go! Please review :)**

* * *

Sunday arrived in a blink of an eye. The fashion-savvy Ayano scanned herself in the mirror once again before she left her house. Her outfit consisted of: black, floral, halter top; light, denim jeans; an ivory cardigan; and chestnut-brown sandals, which were paired with a small black shoulder bag and a ponytail hairstyle. Before she left, her aunt Agatha made a bet that the "mischievous" boy would not show up, to which the young one responded with: "We'll see."

The teenager arrived an hour before the meet-up time. She wanted to check out some attractions in the park before she'd isolate herself with Hibari later on—if he decided to come. Upon arriving, the park had been transformed into a large wisteria world, manifesting a colorful sea of purple and pastel lavender. The entrance to the park was a short wisteria tunnel: it wasn't completely enclosed as the sun could partially get through the wisteria vines that were wrapped around the tunnel.

In the center of the park was a large hedge maze. Additionally, there were small wisteria gardens with mini ponds scattered around. There were also different booths set up in several different spots around the park. There was a face-paint booth for children. There was a horticulture store that was selling wisteria seeds and flowers. There were mini food trucks just outside the park. And there were so much more.

Ayano wasn't able to visit every single spot of the park as she ran out of time. She had half an hour left before her meet-up time with Hibari, so she started heading toward a hilly residential area away from the park. It was a twenty-minute easy hike before she reached her destination on time. Her destination was a small coffee shop that sat on a rocky hill. The shop had a mini backyard that had about five mini round tables. Of course, the backyard was safely surrounded by fences not tall enough to block the view of the town below. The teenager settled down on the table situated on the end of the hill so that she could oversee the entire wisteria park.

The boy she was expecting wasn't there yet. So she ordered a small, hot, cappuccino to keep her awake as well as to stay warm on an unusual chilly weather.

Wisteria. Sure this flower must symbolized something, right? Ayano used her smartphone to research what the flower could have symbolized. She wanted to see if she could find an importance as to why her mother was so attracted to this event every year. Google results yielded to wisteria symbolizing youth, devotion, mystery, beauty, birth, etc.

Apparently, wisteria could be a symbol of one's expression of affection toward a special person whom they've just recently met. _How funny,_ chuckled the Nicolaou girl under her breath. _Why does that sound familiar? Do I have a special someone that I just recently met?_

She started listing those people. _There's aunt Agatha, Mina-chan, anddd…._

She then remembered Hibari.

"That can't be, Hibari-san is not a _special person_ to me," she softly laughed at herself.

Half an hour passed. There was still no sign of Hibari. After an hour, the teenager already gave up on expecting him. She was not surprised. After all, he was a person who didn't like crowding, which Mina had warned about multiple times.

But the long-haired girl wasn't going to leave the place. _I did say that I wasn't going to move until he shows up_ , she reminded herself. She already accepted that he was never going to show up. But she was also a little bit… prideful, whenever she made promises like that. Ayano decided to keep her words and started to mentally prepare herself to admit defeat to her aunt.

The teenager was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't notice the owner of the shop refilling her coffee.

"Little miss, you remind me a lot of a memorable customer from so many years ago," inquired the elder woman. "She would always come to my shop every year for the Wisteria festival… " she paused, then continued, "alone, by herself."

"Thank you for the refill. May I ask what about me reminded you of her?" Ayano was intrigued.

"You resemble her, young lady." The owner wiped the side of the kettle. "It's as if you're a perfect clone of her."

Ayano wondered if the elder was referring to her mother. She took a small sip of her coffee, and then continued with her conversation. "I look just like any other girls around here, I'm as Japanese as everyone else," she chuckled. "Or maybe you met a doppelganger of mine?" she joked.

"You might be Japanese but you definitely have an aura of a foreigner."

That surprised the Nicolaou girl. It was the first time she was given such a bizarre description. She then laughed which made the elder tilt her head in question.

"Maybe, m'am. I am actually a quarter Greek."

"No wonder! It might be your western blood that makes you exude such an elegant feature," The elder delightedly commented.

"That was such a lovely compliment. Thank you." Ayano bowed.

"You're welcome, little miss. Well, I'll head back inside. My shop closes at nine, so feel free to stay until then."

The elder went back inside her shop. At the same time, the teenager checked the time on her phone. It was 8:00 pm. _It's been two hours,_ she sighed. Her disappointment quickly faded when something illuminated all of the sudden in the Wisteria park. _The Wisteria night event,_ she mumbled. She deeply inhaled as she anticipated for the next thing that was going to occur, not knowing that the next hour definitely would go down as one of the best memories in her life.

* * *

"See? I told you," sneered Agatha as she picked up her niece from the coffee shop and was now driving home.

"I know. No need to rub it on my face."

"What did you expect was going to happen?" The aunt teased.

"Nothing really," eye-rolled the teenager.

"Nevertheless, how was the festival? Was the night event as 'magical' as what my sister claimed it to be?"

Ayano replayed the scene in her head. Her mother was right. No words could explain how beautiful the night was.

"It was."

"How?" Agatha wondered while still keeping her eyes on the road.

"You'd have to see it for yourself," grinned her niece.

* * *

It was unusually cloudy the next day. The Nicolaou girl was on her way to school when she encountered her bubbly friend at an intersection of a street. Mina was evidently exhausted from her volleyball boot camp during the weekend. The short-haired girl didn't even notice Ayano's greeting not until three minutes later when she finally realized that she wasn't walking alone.

"Yano-chan! I didn't notice you were around!" shrieked the fatigued girl.

"I said hi a few minutes ago," Ayano giggled. "You look like you're about to collapse. Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine. My body is just worn out from the brutal conditioning and practice."

"Doesn't the volleyball season start in Fall? It's still April."

"Well, school-league wise, yes. But we also participate in summer tournaments. For several years, the volleyball team of Namimori high has been fluctuating from 2nd seed to 3rd seed of our division. This year, our ultimate goal is to claim first!" announced the determined Mina.

"You've been working so hard, I'm so proud of you,"Ayano grinned. "I will pray to the volleyball goddess to grant you the victory."

Mina's expression lightened up with her friend's silly encouragement. "You're such an angel Yano-chan," she gave her friend a back hug which made the latter almost lose her balance. "By the way, how was your date with Hibari-san?"

"It was not a date," the long-haired girl nonchalantly responded. "Besides, he never showed up."

"I told you. you should've asked Yamamoto instead, there's no way he would say no to a cute girl like you!"

"I'm not cute. Inviting an uninterested Hibari was not cute. That was probably creepy to him," Ayano ashamedly shrugged. "Anyway, I am deeply embarrassed that I even asked him. I hope not to see him in the next few days."

"Haha girl, you do know that you're supposed to take a picture of the disciplinary committee room today right?" Mina teased.

 _Oh no,_ the long-haired girl mentally squealed. _I should have said no when the yearbook club asked me to take a picture of that room._

 _I should've let them do their job as a yearbook club._

The long-haired girl facepalmed herself which made the other burst into laughter.

"Do you need help with that, Yano-chan?"

 _Fujioka-san did not raise a coward._ "No, it's fine. I can handle it, Mina-chan."

"You are a fearless girl I LOVE IT. Be careful, you're persistence might make me start to ship you two," Mina smirked.

"Ship? What do you mean?" It seemed that the countryside girl hasn't caught up with the modern slang.

"Nothing. Nevermind." Mina responded as the two reached the gate of the school.

* * *

Right after school, the long-haired girl decided to muster up all her strength and complete the yearbook club's request. "Good afternoon, Kusakabe-san," she bowed as the mentioned male opened the door of the disciplinary committee room. She let out a big sigh of relief when she saw no signs of Hibari in the room.

"Nicolaou-san, how have you been?" the kind vice-president asked.

"Still as actively involved in school as ever. "

"I can see that. I saw your photo request last Friday and talked to the chairman. He approved it."

"Thank you so much, Kusakabe-san," Ayano happily replied.

"You're very welcome. Do you need to talk to Kyoya-san?"

 _I actually don't want to for at least a week._ "No, it's fine. I don't want to bother him in his duties."

"Oh really? Lately, you seem to want to get close to him fearlessly, and I applaud you for that."

The teenage girl successfully snapped three decent-quality pictures of the room not until the fourth one, which came up super blurry due to how Kusakabe's statement startled her.

"Did I really look clingy to him this past few days?"

Kusakabe looked at the perplexed Ayano. "I didn't mean to say it in that way. I'm sorry."

However, he thought that something _little_ was going on between the two. First, Ayano was not fearful of Hibari, and the latter seemed not to care about how the girl was too comfortable with his authority. Second, she definitely would "crowd" herself with Hibari, yet he seemed not to be bothered by it. Third, the invitation to a date. Well, the skylark rejected it, so Kusakabe dismissed that from looking "fishy".

Suddenly, the two jolted when they heard a particular cold voice behind them.

"Why is the vice-president crowding with another student here?"

 _Ah. He's here. I'm already feeling embarrassed,_ Ayano mentally sweated. She turned around and to no one's surprise, it was the infamous Hibari.

"I was just about to go back to my patrolling, Kyoya-san. Well, will you excuse me," bowed Kusakabe as he walked away from the scene.

The Nicolaou girl subconsciously lifted her arm and almost grabbed the vice-chairman by his uniform to stop his movement. However, she was able to stop midway before that happened, therefore saving her from an awkward situation of having to explain why she grabbed Kusakabe's jacket like a shy child.

"You're blocking the door. Please leave if you are done with your task," Hibari nonchalantly uttered.

Ayano knew not to talk back since this was how she has been preventing herself from getting bitten to death. She moved to the side to allow the certain boy to enter the room.

"Also, next time… take the hint," continued the boy as he threw a crumpled ball small piece of paper at the girl. She caught it and unraveled it to be the piece of sticky note that had the date, time, and the messy drawing of a map of the Wisteria festival.

"I already did. But you really missed out yesterday," replied Ayano.

"I don't care. Why don't you go home and tell your parents about your fantasy narrative."

That statement left the parent-less girl stunned—in a bad way. She didn't know whether to take that as an offense or a joke. Not everyone knew that she was an orphan. She didn't even tell Mina yet about her orphanage status. She didn't think that such a insensitive comment would have such an impact on her. She felt the build up of tears in her eyes, which Hibari definitely noticed, but she closed her eyes to prevent a single tear from coming out, took a deep breath, and opened her mouth.

"I really wish I could, Hibari-san. Unfortunately, I don't have any parents," Ayano calmly answered before she bowed and left the room.

The head of the disciplinary committee was unexpectedly left surprised.

Why? Well, he was the type of guy who would enjoy the cries of the herbivores whenever he bit them to death. To him, a fearful crowd affirmed his power and dominance. He made Ayano—who was just an another herbivore to him—almost cry… and he shouldn't be bothered by it. She might be a female but no gender would prohibit him from being the dominant person.

However, the girl didn't tear up because of fear. Her eyes illustrated emotional pain. She was hurt.

 _So what?_ Hibari asserted to himself.

He walked toward a cabinet full of folders and pulled out the one that had the letter "N" in the cover. He sat back on his chair and started shuffling through the documents until he saw the word "Nicolaou", which was Ayano's student profile containing her personal information. He scrolled down until he read the word "parents". She had none.

Under the "guardians" section, there were two entries. First was Agatha Nicolaou, who was listed as a guardian/aunt, and resided in Namimori. The second was Tara Fujioka, who was also listed as a guardian and whose address was at a "House of Vesta" place somewhere in Toyama.

Next, he checked her birthplace. It was at the "House of Vesta". _What is the House of Vesta?_ With a simple google search on the computer in the room, he finally connected the dots that Ayano was an orphan.

"Interesting. A featherless bird growing back her feathers," he muttered to himself.

* * *

 **This was difficult to proofread omg I was going crazy LOL**

 **Sorry(not sorry) if you expected Hibari to go to the festival. I thought it would be, kind of, OOC, if he did go. Soooo…..**

 **Please let me know if there are grammatical errors, I will fix them right away!**

 **I will see you in 2 or 3 days! :)**

 **Artemis out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Bonjour, it's yoursis-Artemis here!**

 **As promised, here's the new chapter. I think this is the first chapter that I included a tiny, tiny, tiny, little, you'll-miss-it-if-you-blink fluff. It's almost non-existent, but it's definitely there. If you are expecting more fluff, it will start** _ **slowly**_ **occurring in the next five chapters, so please be patient with me ;-D**

 **To reader Peristeria: Yep, Hibari is mean :(**

 **To reader Etha: he might be noticing Ayano a bit more, who knows ;-)**

 **PS: If you are wondering, I actually based the school time(?) system here on Japan's school system. I think most schools start in late March-early April there? I followed that system, which means right now, it has been about a month and a half since Ayano transferred to Namimori.**

 **Nevertheless, here ya go!**

* * *

The Nicolaou girl finally got home, feeling a mix of amazement and irritation. She was amazed because Hibari kept her sticky note just so he could throw it at her like a stone to make a statement. _Amazingly petty._ She was irritated because he was unnecessarily a bully. _How condescending._ Agatha, who was watching a movie in the living room, noticed the teenager exhibiting a long face.

"You are obviously upset. What's up?" questioned the aunt while munching on some dried fruits.

"I'm fine," sighed Ayano as she approached her and stole a piece of dried fruit.

"It's not good to keep your problems inside. You'll implode."

"It really is nothing. Don't worry about it, aunt Agatha." The niece sat next to her aunt and leaned back to relax.

The adult immediately noticed the long-haired girl's facade as it resembled the ones that her half-sister would display. "Hm. I'll take a shot in the dark. Is this about that Hibari boy?" she asked which evidently stunned her niece. "Gotcha! So why are you so obsessed with him?"

Ayano picked up the dried fruit she just dropped upon hearing the boy's name and frowned at her aunt. "I am not obsessed with him. What makes you think that?"

"I don't know. You tell me," Agatha yawned.

" Geez. I get it already, he hates crowding. I respect that he doesn't want anyone to bother him. I get it. Let's just move on," deflected the niece.

"Then why play the game you started?"

"It wasn't a game. I was just testing him. I was… naive," the long-haired girl bitterly admitted.

"I second that statement."

The teenager was not pleased at the adult's sass. "I also almost cried in front of him because he mentioned my parents," she finally revealed.

Her aunt rolled her eyes and then gave her depressed niece a hug. "He doesn't know your life and your situation, so ignore the boy. Don't let him ruin your beautiful complexion. Let's change the subject. How's your research going?"

All Ayano needed was a hug to regain her composure. She then signaled to break the hug after their moment, took a gray notebook from her bag, and flipped to the first page. She has been taking notes of her mother's diary. The teenager noticed that on every Saturday entries, her mother (Yoshino) and grandfather (Dimitri) would go to a shooting range place an hour away from Namimori called G.M.—which stood for Gun Monster—to practice using guns. According to another entry, Yoshino considered the owner, whom she addressed as "baldie-san", as her second father.

"Nice findings. I remembered that my dad and sister would go every Saturday to a shooting range place ever since she was 11. Dad wanted me to go with them, but I refused because I never liked the thoughts of handling guns," Agatha affirmed. "I was just not into it."

"I'm going to hypothesize that this 'baldie-san' would have information that we lack about my mother," Ayano concluded.

"I can't really confirm that since they never told me stories about their Saturday bonding days. But are you going to test it?" the adult lowered her eyeglasses.

The teenager paused to think for a minute.

"Yes, I want to."

"Hm. Very courageous. How?"

"I'll take lessons from that G.M. place."

"You're still underage, so you would need a guardian to accompany you. I won't be available to do that job for you," Agatha pointed.

"I can use a fake ID?" the teenager suggested.

The aunt looked at her niece, astonished. "That a girl. Now that is what I call the Nicolaou way of thinking," she smirked as she ruffled her niece's hair.

* * *

A week and a half passed since the wisteria event. Ayano and Mina were chatting while walking toward the cafeteria to buy some snacks in the vending machine.

"Yamamoto-san has his first game today! He's in the varsity team so his game doesn't start until 4. Wanna watch after this council meeting with me?" Mina inquired.

"It seems that you are the one who have the 'hots' for Yamamoto," grinned the Nicolaou girl.

The short-haired girl was caught off-guard by her friend's unexpected tease. "You're funny... but no. The volleyball team will be supporting them like how the baseball team has been supporting us."

"Oh, so is the volleyball team like a sister to the baseball team?"

"Pretty much!"

The two ladies bought their snacks and started to head back to the student council room when Mina suddenly gasped,which made the other halt her steps.

"What's wrong Mina-chan? Did you forget something?"

"I forgot to tell YOU something," the short-haired girl groaned. "It's about today's meeting."

"I know. It's a voting meeting right?" the other pointed.

Mina pinched the bridge of her nose to express uneasiness. "Do you know the participants of a student council voting meeting?"

"The members of the student body government." Ayano confidently answered.

"And… one more particular person." Mina looked at her friend nervously.

"Who? And why do you look like you just saw a ghost?" the historian raised her eyebrow.

"Ugh girl take the hint, Hibari-san will be in our meeting!"

The long-haired girl almost dropped the folder she was carrying upon hearing those words.

"Mina-chan, I suddenly don't want to attend. Can I run away right now?"

"You can't ditch this meeting or else you'll break the quorum and possibly annoy _that_ demon."

The two arrived on time and as expected, the head of the disciplinary committee was already there. He exchanged glances with Ayano who then involuntarily averted her eyes. As soon as the student council room got fully occupied, the president rose to announce the start of the meeting. Hibari stood next to the window to prevent "crowding" with the others in the room. Due to Hibari's presence, the meeting was very organized with no long discussions. Therefore, the meeting ended early despite of a seemingly busy agenda.

After the meeting, Ayano immediately walked out of the room, deserting her short-haired friend. Mina, who was left alone, packed her belongings as quick as she could to catch up to the Nicolaou girl. She was baffled upon Ayano's odd behavior. _Maybe she needed to use the restroom?_ the senior representative wondered. However, in actuality, Ayano just felt awkward (for inexplicable reason) around Hibari. She already pledged to stop bothering him anymore.

The two girls finally reached the baseball field, where the junior varsity game was about to conclude. The varsity team seemed to be warming up in the soccer field, which was right next to the baseball field. Ayano quickly pinpointed Yamamoto as he was the tallest one in the sea of boys. On cue, Yamamoto also noticed her from a far away. He waved at the long-haired girl, which made her wave back in response. He pointed somewhere, as if signaling her to meet him there. She looked at where he pointed at, which was at a group of students—two of them looked very familiar.

Ayano and Mina headed toward them. A red-headed boy noticed the two girls and tapped Tsuna which made him turn around.

"Ah! It's you!" pointed Tsuna at the Nicolaou girl.

Gokudera, upon recognizing the long-haired girl, growled at her. "You from the last time. Have you apologized to the tenth yet?!"

Ayano definitely remembered the incident and was also not amused by the silver-haired guy's accusation.

"Ignore those idiots, Yano-chan," said Mina with a detached tone. "Hey Sawada-san, can you put a leash on your dog, please?" She pointed at Gokudera.

"Who are you calling dog?!" he snapped. He was ignored by the senior representative.

 _"Do you know them, Mina-chan?"_ whispered Ayano to her friend.

"I've known them for three years. They always cause trouble around," the short-haired girl sighed. "Sawada Tsunayoshi over there is an idiot so don't get close to him or else you'll catch his stupidity. Gokudera Hayato is a weirdo: he's super smart but he's somehow obsessed with his dumb friend, Sawada-san. Sasagawa Ryohei is a senior and the captain of the boxing club. However, he unfortunately, is also an idiot."

Mina took a bite of her sandwich then continued. "There's the Simon peeps from Simon High who'd always come out to Yamamoto's games. Then there's those girls who I still can't believe are friends with those boys: there's the sweet Sasagawa Kyoko, Kurokawa Hana, and the shy girl with an eye patch is Dokuro Chrome."

Yamamoto finally finished his warm up and met with the rest of the gang.

"Ayano-san! Thank you for coming out to support us," grinned the tall athlete.

 _"Yano-chan, since when did you allow him to address you in your first name?"_ whispered Mina.

 _"Since a while ago,"_ the other whispered back. She then faced Yamamoto and replied to him. "You're welcome. Mina-chan's volleyball team also came out to support," she presented the girl next to her.

"Ah Todou-san, your team has been the most supportive these past two years. I appreciate it," smiled Yamamoto.

"Of course. Our teams are like siblings, we support each other no matter what," grinned back the volleyball player.

"Oh! Let me just introduce you to my friends," Yamamoto declared.

The introductions happened. Afterward, the baseball athlete went back to do some last-minute warm ups. The varsity game commenced shortly. Mina, being a talkative person that she was, whispered to Ayano nonstop as if she was a commentator. She received a few shush from people in the audience, but that didn't stop her from talking. She simply whispered more softly. She soon ran out of things to say, so she instead brought up the whole thing about Hibari and Ayano.

 _"You know, in my honest opinion, you and Hibari-san kind of… look good, together,"_ whispered the short-haired girl.

"Is that what you meant when you said you ship us?"

"Exactly. And I still think you're attracted to him but you just refuse to admit it."

"I'm not attracted to him, stop saying that." Ayano rolled her eyes.

"Lemme tell you something," Mina put her arms around her friend's neck. She then whispered to her ear, _"Hibari's birthday is coming up next week, on the 5th."_

"And what am I supposed to do with that knowledge?"

"I don't know, surprise me, a fan of this nonexistent couple, " Mina smirked.

The Nicolaou girl could do something. She could give him a small gift.

 _Wait no, I'm supposed to stop bothering him,_ Ayano thought.

Or... Perhaps she could use that occasion to apologize to him? She did feel bad for nagging him to go with her to the Wisteria Festival. If she was on his shoes, she would probably also feel annoyed if a boy kept insisting her to hang out with him. She would perceived it as being creepy.

 _I just called myself a creeper,_ Ayano mentally sighed.

* * *

One week later, the dreaded day came. Ayano was adamant to proceed with her little plan. All she needed to do was to give Hibari a small birthday gift—a postcard that she bought as a souvenir from the Wisteria festival. She also wanted to apologize for being annoying.

Lunch period arrived so she headed toward the disciplinary room. There she met Kusakabe, but not the particular boy she was looking for.

"Hi Kusakabe-san, how's your duties?" she initiated.

"Today is a busy day. What made you visit us today?" the vice-chairman asked.

The determined girl peeked inside the room to see if the particular boy was there. "Is Hibari-san here?"

"Do you need to submit a document from the council? I can handle it from here," answered Kusakabe.

"Oh, no I don't have anything to submit. I just want to talk to Hibari-san."

The question surprised the male. He didn't think she would be seeking for a skylark just to have a conversation with him.

"He ate lunch earlier and said he was going to get some fresh air," Kusakabe revealed. "He might be on the rooftop. Are you sure you want to approach him?"

"Don't be alarmed, Kusakabe-san. I just want to greet him happy birthday," smiled the fearless girl. She then bowed and walked toward the nearest staircase. The vice-chairman, on the other hand, was left dumbfounded. Only a few selected number of people knew when Hibari's birthday was: not even the whole disciplinary committee had that knowledge! Nevertheless, he commended Ayano's bravery. She was the only one out of the student council members who could handle talking to his terrifying chairman.

Meanwhile, Ayano just reached entrance to the rooftop. She pushed the door, not even bothering to do a small self pep-talk.

 _There's the boy I am looking for._

Hibari was sitting up while leaning his back against the railings that surrounded the whole rooftop. He opened his left eye to look at the uninvited person who barged in. When he saw the long-haired girl, he went back to relaxing, as if ignoring her existence.

The fearless girl slowly approached the relaxed wolf. This time, she sat next to him but she was careful not to violate his personal space.

The boy finally parted her lips.

"What do you need, woman?"

Ayano slightly jolted, as that was not the response she was expecting. "No ' _get away from me_ ' this time? That's a social skill improvement," she joyfully commented.

The skylark immediately glared at the bubbly girl. "If you're intent is to crowd, I will not hesitate to bite you to death."

 _There's the infamous line_ , she amusingly thought. "I won't crowd, I promise."

"Hn." Hibari looked away and closed his eyes again, as if he was going back to to his nap.

"Happy Birthday."

Hibari suddenly widened his eyes. He frowned at the smiling girl. _How did this herbivore know?_

"Who told you about my birthday?" he demanded.

 _Mina-chan did but I'm not about to sell her out,_ Ayano thought. "Oh, I just heard it somewhere. I forgot where," she lightly clasped her hands. She searched for a reaction in Hibari's eyes. She might have caught a very tiny element of surprise. But then, her mind was probably just playing games.

"Also," the Nicolaou girl hesitated, "I want to apologize for annoying you about the Wisteria festival. So here's a postcard from the festival as a small birthday gift." She placed it down next to him instead of handing it over, because she knew he wasn't going to accept it. "I will leave now," she bowed as she stood up, straightened her skirt, and headed toward the exit.

As soon as she was out of his sight, Hibari picked up the postcard next to him. It was a picture of a garden surrounded with beautifully-organized, colorful shades of wisteria flowers. It looked like a place where he could peacefully take a nap for a day. At the back of the postcard, there was a sentence written:

 _The rest of the world was black and white but this was in screaming color- Ayano._

The corners of Hibari's lips might have lifted a little bit.

Just a little bit.

* * *

 **I will post the new chapter in 3-5 days, I didn't think that I'm going to be busy this weekend. For the meantime check out the side blog I created for this fanfic. You can find the link in my profile. I post character tags there and/or teasers for the next 3 chapters.**

 **Please review, I like responding to my readers :)**

 **I will see you sometime in Monday or Tuesday!**

 **Artemis out.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi there! Itsyoursis-Artemis here! Sorry about the delay, I was having fun writing chapter 13 and 14 that I completely forgot to proofread and publish chapter 9. Chapter 13 and 14 are going to be interesting, because *teaser* it consisted of the ten year bazooka and a present and TYL counterpart switching, with some insights about the future.**

 **If I have any grammatical mistakes please let me know, I'll fix them right away!**

 **Please review review review I want to know what y'all thinking.**

* * *

"Here are the minutes of the meeting from yesterday, as you requested."

The fearless Ayano handed Hibari pages of the printed transcript from a significant meeting he missed due to endlessly working through stacks of paperwork that were left by his absent secretary.

The two seemed to be on a neutral term after the Nicolaou girl apologized last week. In fact, after that day, Hibari acknowledged that she was harmless and obedient; therefore, he didn't need to worry about her creating any trouble. He'd admit occasionally that his boredom could use some quick battle of wits with her. Sometimes, he would find a few of her comments to be quite amusing.

For instance, he overheard her one day saying that the point of playing golf was to play as little golf as possible, and that thought was allegedly "mind-blowing." At first, he ignored the herbivore's enthusiastic claim. Two minutes later, while walking, the skylark finally had an epiphany and realized how correct her statement was. _Amusing_ , he thought.

Kusakabe barged in with more paperwork that came from the teachers who requested to put their failing students on academic probation. His eyes widened in surprise upon seeing a certain girl in the disciplinary room with Hibari.

 _Are they in better terms?_ he thought. His thoughts were interrupted by the girl's comment.

"Kusakabe-san, it looks like you won't be going home with so much paperwork today," Ayano chuckled.

Kusakabe simply nodded in agreement. "I'm afraid that will be the case."

He approached his senior and broke him some news. "It seems that our secretary is still very ill, Kyoya-san. I visited him in the hospital this morning, and his conditions were worse than before."

The long-haired girl realized that she was not supposed to be in the room while they conversed about a seemingly confidential matter.

"I'll leave so you can talk in private," she motioned, and excused herself.

"Stay."

Ayano halted her steps. One simple word from Hibari made not only her whose command was directed at, but also the vice-chairman of the disciplinary committee, to jolt. She turned around with a puzzled expression. What could possibly be the reason why her presence was needed by a certain chairman?

"He should be healing up, not getting worse," the skylark asserted to his vice-chairman while shuffling the papers in front of him. "And he got hospitalized? I don't need such a weakling in my committee," he scoffed. "He's fired."

Kusakabe let out a sigh, as he couldn't really argue with his chairman. "I see. Who will replace him?"

Hibari paused for a moment. He closed his eyes as a sign of collecting his thoughts. After what Ayano thought a painful minute of silence, he opened his eyes and directed his gaze at her.

"Her."

Kusakabe's jaw opened in shock. The girl, on the other hand, slightly tilted her head in question.

"Excuse me?" Ayano challenged.

"You don't fear the committee, which means you're mentally strong enough to be in one," Hibari immediately retorted as he resumed his paperwork.

"But you're forgetting that I'm already in the student body government," she pointed out.

"And? You're a historian. Your position does not have any power."

"I do get to vote which is itself, a power. Besides, I supervise the yearbook club."

"And? The council can function without a historian."

"Even if that's true, why choose me, Hibari-san?"

"Because you crowd yourself with the members of the disciplinary committee. It's almost as if you are obsessed with us," the skylark smirked.

"Except that I am not, obsessed with the committee. Besides, I only talk to you and Kusakabe-san, I don't know any other members," Ayano answered confidently.

There's the quick exchange of wits that for some inexplicable reason, the skylark quite enjoyed.

He was going to appoint someone else from the committee for the secretary position. However, he recognized the long-haired girl's diligence despite of holding a useless position in the student council.

 _A featherless bird trying to grow her feathers_ , he thought.

He has heard of the stereotype (and might have believed in it) that orphans grew up to become "broken"; not having a parental figure and being passed around like an object would have a negative impact on their personalities and behavior. Thus, he commended the metaphorical small animal with her strength and sense of independence without the experience of being raised by her biological parents.

Furthermore, Hibari couldn't explain how—in a span of less than two months—he became tolerant of the female herbivore. There was something _pleasing_ about her presence. Although, he strongly refused to consider it as attraction. It was such a naive idea. But again, he couldn't explain it. For now, Hibari regarded it simply as an acknowledgement of her existence.

Meanwhile, the vice-chairman who was left speechless finally snapped out of his frozen zone. Kusakabe observed how lenient his chairman was around the Nicolaou girl, how he opened himself up to an innocent quarrel with her, and how he acknowledged her, in general. The hopeful assistant realized how beneficial this "development" was: he thought that Ayano might be able to talk his chairman out of his future unreasonable decisions.

"Nicolaou-san, you can still keep your student council position while being in the disciplinary committee," Kusakabe advised.

The head of the disciplinary committee glared at his assistant. "Kusakabe Tetsuya, your input is not needed."

 _Did Kusakabe-san just imply that he wants me to accept the offer?_ thought Ayano.

"Even so, don't you think holding two positions puts too much on my plate?" claimed the female teenager.

"Nicolaou-san, in this case, your secretarial duties will prevail. You wouldn't need to attend the student council meetings but at the same time, you get to keep your position as a historian," Kusakabe reiterated.

"Vice-chairman, I'm warning you, I do not need your opinion," Hibari growled.

 _I was just trying to help you, Kyoya-san,_ Kusakabe sighed mentally. His chairman was obviously bad at convincing her to take the offer.

"Perhaps you are afraid of holding a legitimate position," Hibari questioned the female student. "Or, perhaps you aren't confident of your own skills?" The skylark mocked in a challenging way.

 _He's challenging me?_ Ayano was a little bit alarmed and confused about the situation. Just two weeks ago, Hibari loathed her presence. And now, he suddenly offered her a position that required her to work with him side by side: a complete about face.

 _I can't figure him out._

She thought she solved his character puzzle already.

She thought he was an introvert who disliked attention.

She thought he was a power-savvy who sought to dominate.

She thought he was a sensitive person who resorted to violence when offended.

 _Did I miss a piece of his puzzle?_

There was only one way to find out. _Fujioka-san didn't raise a coward,_ she reminded herself.

"Fine. I'll do it," she conceded. "But I will not wear the black jacket as a uniform."

She immediately walked out of the room as it was getting late. She needed to go home and mentally prepare herself for the weekend. _How do I break the news to Mina-chan?_ Ayano mentally groaned.

The skylark stood up from his seat and approached his assistant. He placed his tonfa-wielding left arm across Kusakabe's chest, as if he's threatening a fight.

"I could've convinced her alone. I didn't need your help, vice-chairman. I won't hesitate to bite you to death if you disobey me next time."

"I deeply apologize, Kyoya-san. It won't happen again."

Kusakabe bowed as the skylark left the room. The vice-chairman could not believe that Ayano accepted the offer. _Maybe something will spark in the future?_ Kusakabe amusingly thought.

* * *

The next day illuminated a peaceful Saturday morning. Fortunately, Agatha was off-duty. As a trauma surgeon, she would rarely receive any days off. Her presence was constantly needed for the medical emergency cases that would occur daily. Many times, she would be asked to travel to other hospitals affiliated with Namimori Hospital due to the lack of physicians in the surrounding cities. She was also the head of the intern team, overseeing and training the medical students on floor, which added more to her plate. Instead of using this precious day to relax, Agatha agreed to accompany her niece to a firearm range place called G.M.—if it was still on business.

The two Nicolaou were having a simple western-style breakfast that consisted of toasted, cheesy, scrambled-egg, croissant paired with a glass of orange juice and a small bowl of blueberries. They were conversing about their plan for the day. According to a simple internet search, G.M. still existed. However, the information about the place was ten years outdated. This meant that either: they were still on business but never updated their information online, or they were out of business and forgot to close their website. If the first scenario was correct, then Ayano would proceed to sign up for a weekly gun training to emulate her mother's past behavior, in hopes that it would produce a clue about her whereabouts. If the second scenario prevailed, the two Nicolaou would simply spend the rest of the day in a nearby zoo.

"Ayano, do you have your fake ID with you?"

"Yes, I do, thank you for reminding me aunt Agatha."

The female adult screened her niece's outfit of the day. She admitted, she wished she had Ayano's sense of fashion. Her niece's talent was something that the teenager didn't inherit from her missing mother.

If Agatha remembered correctly, her half-sister had a terrible sense of fashion. Being an architecture student, Yoshino spent most of her time in the architecture studio, sketching projects upon projects. Many times, she would spend the whole night in the studio building a mini-model of an architectural project. By only receiving 2-3 hours of sleep and not wanting to miss her core classes, Yoshino stopped paying attention to her appearance. She went to classes in sweatpants and sometimes, in her pajamas.

How did Agatha know this information? During their college years, the two siblings had a very close relationship, offering each other emotional support as both the field of their studies were stressful. Agatha had hoped that their relationship would stay intact, not until Yoshino started behaving oddly on her 5th year in college.

"Is there something wrong?" Ayano blurted out to her spacing-out aunt.

"Nothing, let's go."

* * *

About an hour later, the two ladies arrived in front of a very long, one-story building plastered with "G.M" graffiti which gave the place an abandoned vibe. Oddly enough, the neighborhood around the place looked calm and safe, despite the lack of presence of human civilization. Suddenly, a lady exited the building.

"Are you perhaps lost?" asked the lady who was wearing a uniform that resembled a typical hotel receptionist.

"We're looking for a firearm training place called G.M." responded Agatha. "Are you guys still on business?"

The lady widened her eyes in surprised. "Yes, our business is still open. Would you like to come in?"

The two Nicolaou glanced at each other, telepathically giving each other a high five. Upon entering, these two couldn't help but gawk: the indoor appearance resembled that of a normal hotel lobby! They were definitely fooled by the outside appearance of the building.

"So, how can I help you?" initiated the front-desk agent.

"We are looking to sign my niece up for a weekly firearm training," answered Agatha.

"Sure, I can do that for you. Is she underage?"

"She's not."

"May I see an ID that proves you are 18 or above, Miss?"

The front-desk lady faced the younger-looking female whom she assumed was the "niece". Ayano was wearing a maxi long dress with the top part being black while the skirt part having a repeated chevron pattern of colors beige, black, gray, and soft rose (a dress she sewed herself). She paired this up with a sun hat and sandals with low heels. With this outfit, she could definitely pass as a twenty-year old young adult.

"Here you go," Ayano handed her fake ID. It was a resident ID stating that Ayano was 18 years old and that her name was "Fujioka Ayano". The receptionist looked at the ID, then at Ayano, then finally nodded as she handed the ID back to the teenager. She then gave the her an application to fill out. Once the application process was completed, Agatha took out her credit card to finally pay for the fee of the weekly class.

"For how long do you want to take the class?"

"She'll try for two months, then we'll let you know if we want to extend," answered the aunt.

"Awesome. After I transact your payment, my boss will come out to give you a tour," the receptionist beamed. "Your card will not be deducted until next week, when your niece starts her first training."

Fifteen minutes passed, and an old man wearing a bandana covering his whole head appeared. The two Nicolaou's wondered if this was the "baldie-san" Yoshino talked about in her diary. " _Never mention Nicolaou, we don't know if it will be helpful or detrimental to our mission,"_ whispered Agatha.

The man talked to the receptionist before the latter pointed at Ayano, which made the man to approach them. "Welcome to G.M. My name is GM, you can address me how-ever you like, I don't really care," he happily remarked. "Let's start the tour, shall we?"

The tour was very short. GM explained the rules and regulations, the dress code prohibiting skirts and slippers for safety reasons, emergency procedures, etc. After the short tour, the two went home feeling a sense of accomplishment. The teenager felt that there was finally a development in her quest to find her mother. The adult, albeit feeling the same way, was slightly worried about the act her niece had to put for the next two months.

She hoped that her decision would not put her precious sister's daughter in a dangerous situation.

* * *

 **Please review :)**

 **Pretty please.**

 **Not that I'm promoting my side blog but I do posts teasers and character tags of Safe and Sound in my tumblr blog. The url is** **khr-safeandsound . tumblr . com (remove the spaces) if you want to check it out. You can ask me questions there if you have any, and I respond fast. sooo...**

 **I'll see you in 3 days!**

 **Artemis out.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello there!**

 **I proofread this for _several_ hours, yet still I'm not confident that I wrote Hibari's character well enough ugh.**

 **I'm so tired.**

 **BUT WAIT IT'S GOKUDERA'S BDAY TODAY YA'LL... IT'S 12 AM IN CALIFORNIA RIGHT NOW SO IMMA HAVE TO CELEBRATE WHEN I WAKE UP, DERA NEEDS SOME LOVE 3**

 **Ok forreals, here yah go!**

 **Please review?**

* * *

It was Ayano's first day as the official secretary of the disciplinary committee. She had zero knowledge on what her job entailed to, but she hoped that Kusakabe would be the one to "train" her instead of the certain chairman.

She waited in the empty disciplinary room after school, listening to the eerie, yet calming sound of the ticking clock displayed on the wall. She kept replaying these past few weeks in her head: how initially she didn't plan to be actively involved in school, how she naively thought that she could extract friendliness from a crowd-hating person, and in an unprecedented twist of her fate, she now held a prominent position in a committee feared by most students.

Ten minutes later, Kusakabe arrived.

"Nicolaou-san, thank you for waiting."

"It was nothing. So, how do I start with this secretarial job?"

The long-haired girl patiently remained on the couch with both her hands on her lap. Her gaze followed the vice-chairman as he walked across the room and placed some documents on Hibari's desk. He then walked toward a small rectangular table situated by the door. He lifted both the table and its paired chair and positioned them adjacent to his senior's desk, forming a right angle. He then spoke.

"This will be your desk."

Ayano widened her eyes. She stared at her supposedly desk then back at the male. "You are kidding, right? I will be working right next to Hibari-san?"

"Indeed."

"Why can't my desk just stay where it originally was at? As far away from his desk as possible?" she inquired.

"I don't know. Kyoya-san just ordered me to do so," he replied. "Don't worry. He's not that difficult to work with once you get to know him."

"Wouldn't this be considered as crowding?" the long-haired girl sighed.

"You'll be fine," Kusakabe reassured.

On cue, the door opened and the subject of the conversation entered the room. He walked toward his desk and sat down. He then broke the silence.

"You are dismissed, vice-chairman. Continue patrolling the hallways."

"Yes, Kyoya-san," Kusakabe bowed and marched out.

The Nicolaou teenager adamantly faced the head of the disciplinary committee. There were no regrets about her decision, only doubts. Doubts if she would be able to _figure him out._

"So, Hibari-san, what do I do?"

The male pondered on what his new secretary needed to work on. He then pointed at the desk adjacent to his.

"First, sit down there."

She didn't react to his command; she instead sought for another confirmation that her presence was absolutely desired.

"Are you deaf?" he reiterated when he noticed the female didn't move an inch from her spot.

She exhaled a breath and then followed his order. She sat down and folded both her arms on the table while leaning forward.

"There. Now what?"

They held an eye contact for a solid three seconds—his metallic gaze upon her cloudy, cool-toned gray eyes—before the female slightly tilted her head and frowned.

"Am I supposed to play a staring contest with you?"

"No, but your work will if you don't start with it soon."

"I don't even know where to start. Please enlighten me, Hibari-san," she sarcastically said as she leaned back and folded her arms across her chest.

"Your remarks suggest to me that you are untamed. Should I tame you?" he smirked.

The female teenager felt her spine lightly shudder at such a _suggestive_ statement. "That's not necessary. Just tell me what to do already," she softly smiled, hoping that his weird threat just now would be dismissed.

The chairman of the disciplinary committee responded with a bored expression. He then handed her a folder.

"Read this. Summarize each requests and documents."

The new female secretary sighed and accepted the folder. She estimated the content of the folder to be about fifty pages long based on its thickness.

"How long do I have to stay?"

"Until you finished your task," he nonchalantly answered.

Forty minutes flew by, and the fearless girl mused over the stillness of the surrounding. Her proximity to a fierce person felt very bizarre, but oddly enough, there was a sense of serenity. The Nicolaou girl utilized the peace as an opportunity to secretly glance at her chairman.

For the first time, she witnessed a peaceful and soft image which she had never seen the boy express. Furthermore, she also noted other attributes such as the well-defined, _manly_ jaw of his, as if puberty did him right. His metallic sharp eyes that used to exhibit viciousness were now relaxed, like some cozy clouds.

Suddenly, from the corner of her eyes, Ayano saw the phone in the pocket of her bag lit up. Her aunt texted her a photo. She opened the text and it said: _I found an old pic of your mom when she was at your age. Hopefully this brightened up your mood. Good luck working with him._ The teenager opened the second text which was a picture of her mother.

The exact resemblance was bewildering.

It was as if her aunt took a picture of the teenager, slapped some sepia and vintage filters, put a dot on the right cheekbone, and claimed it as Yoshino in her teenage years.

There was no doubt that they were mirror images of each other.

Or twins.

Or doppelgangers.

The long-haired girl quietly chuckled upon that idea. Hibari noticed the distracted girl smiling at whatever was on the screen of her phone.

"Woman, don't get sidetracked or else you will be here until night," he hissed.

The Nicolaou girl looked up and immediately met the gaze of the male.

"Hibari-san, don't you think my twin is cute?"

She showed him the screen of her phone which displayed a photo of her mother. He glimpsed at it, then at his enthusiastic secretary. He raised his eyebrow.

 _The herbivore has a sibling?_ he mused. "This is irrelevant to your work."

"I know. But it reminded me of the doppelganger myth. Apparently, encountering your doppelganger was considered as bad omen: a sign of your imminent death." She put her phone back in her bag and continued with her explanation.

"Other version of the myth suggests that your doppelganger is supposed to be your evil version of yourself, and that you are not supposed to meet with them because they will replace you and no one will notice. I wonder if you are you, or a doppelganger of the real Hibari Kyoya?" she teased.

Hibari was slightly entertained. He was not familiar with such myth. However, he also realized at the same time, that the girl just indirectly called him evil.

"A myth that I don't care about. Nevertheless, you just questioned my existence, herbivore. If you were trying to be funny, then your sense of humor was very dry."

"Ouch. I was just kidding," she softly laughed, a sound that for some reason, pleased the male in the room. She tugged a few hair strands behind her left ear: a trivial act but somehow profound enough for the male to spot a mole on her earlobe, which he found inexplicably, _endearing_?

"What?" The female caught him staring.

"That mole," he unconsciously blurted out, which made Ayano raise her eyebrow and trace the outline of her earlobe.

"Oh." Her eyes slightly widened as she realized how attentive the male was that he even noticed such a minor detail of an underrated beauty mark.

Hibari might have caught a very little hint of crimson on her face, but he quickly dismissed his thoughts and averted his gaze back to his paperwork.

"Well then. I'm going to buy a drink," the long-haired girl announced as she stood from her seat. For some reason, she felt the immediate need to get some fresh air due to a weird sensation in her stomach. It wasn't ache. It was similar to adrenaline rush, but it was sharp and short-lived. She might have also felt her temperature slightly heat up. Butterflies in her stomach? She wasn't quite sure.

"Hn."

Ayano calmly walked toward the door. Before she completely disappeared from the male's sight, she clarified one last thing.

"By the way. the picture I showed you on my phone? I don't have a sibling. She's actually my mom, when she was my age."

* * *

It was now the Nicolaou girl's second day as the secretary of the disciplinary committee. Fortunately, she didn't have to work side by side with Hibari as he was patrolling today. Her task was to sign the paperwork in his place. The papers were academic probation applications that needed to be approved.

One application stood out. It was Sawada Tsunayoshi's paper. Mina informed her before that Tsuna was the dullest bulb in their graduating class. However, Ayano has exchanged few friendly conversation with him and found him to be kind and caring. She thought that they actually got along pretty well. Even though he was an "idiot", he exuded an uncanny charisma that a great leader would display. Too bad he was struggling academically, which earned him her sympathy.

The long-haired girl headed toward the nearest vending machine to purchase some snacks. She happened to encounter and bump onto Tsuna on her way back to the disciplinary office.

"I'm sorry—Oh, Ayano-san!"

"What a weird deja-vu, this was exactly how we first met," Ayano chuckled. "Why are you still on campus at this time? Hibari-san is patrolling, just to let you know."

"Oh, I'm actually looking for him to talk to him about… uh… stuff," Tsuna sweated. He couldn't possibly reveal that he wanted to talk to his cloud guardian to inquire about some Vongola business.

"If you want, you can relay the message to me and I'll let him know?" she offered.

"No, it's fine, thank you for—wait, you'll… what?"

"I'm his new secretary, unfortunately." The teenage girl shrugged.

"... What?!" Tsuna gasped in shock.

"Yup… by the way, you are going to be on academic probation for your very low grades, just a heads up," she revealed in order to change the subject.

"Ughhh. I know, like I've always been," sighed Tsuna.

"You know that you are not going to graduate if you don't pass a certain grade point average, right?"

"I know, and I am working hard."

"That's good to hear! Do you have a tutor?" wondered Ayano.

"I actually have had a home tutor for three years," Tsuna responded with a hint of distaste.

"Three years? You probably need to get a new one if you think you're not improving."

Suddenly, the long-haired girl immediately noticed an unsettling presence behind her. Acting on her gut feeling, she ducked down. She looked above, and she saw a green hammer being held by a baby flying across her head. It was a good thing that she followed her instinct as she almost got smacked on her head by a flying hammer.

"Hm. Nice reflex."

"Reborn! Why did you do that?!" Tsuna shrieked.

"She insulted me."

The baby in the fedora hat landed on Tsuna's shoulder and stared down at the female student who was still on the ground, obviously shocked.

"What is a child, who almost hit me with a… toy hammer, doing here?" Ayano slowly stood up.

"He's uhhhmm… my co—cousin," Tsuna stuttered.

"Nicolaou Ayano, is it? What is your relationship with Hibari?" the baby asked.

 _Relationship? Who is this kid?_ she thought. "I'm just his secretary. That's all." she shrugged her shoulders.

"It's unusual to have a female member in the disciplinary committee. Why did you apply there?"

"I didn't apply. Hibari-san offered it to me."

"Interesting," Reborn smirked.

"Reborn, what are you planning?" Tsuna sweated.

"Nothing, well it is nice to meet you Ayano-chan. Call me Reborn," and with that the infant disappeared like a magic trick.

"Okay?... Your cousin is very perceptive at such an early age, Tsuna-san," Ayano was impressed. "Also, what did he mean when he said that I insulted him?"

Tsuna evidently became flustered. "Ah, uhmmm… He's just weird like that, don't mind the things that come out of his mouth." The boss of Vongola couldn't possibly tell her that Reborn was his home tutor; he knew it sounded crazy.

"If you say so," shrugged Ayano.

Meanwhile, Reborn searched the whole campus to look for the cloud guardian. He finally located the skylark by the soccer field.

"Hibari. Long time no see. I see that you just finished with dealing some troublemakers."

"Infant. What makes you visit?"

"Just checking up on the guardians. I just heard some weird news. I didn't think you would open your committee to females."

Hibari glared at him. "I did not. And there is only one female in my committee. Why do you question?"

"No reason. I was just interested. Well, I will be on my way," and with that he disappeared again.

 _Good, I might possibly have a leverage to further pull him in the family,_ Reborn smirked.

* * *

Two weeks passed after the Nicolaou teenager signed up at GM. Her first day was terrifying; she kept recoiling every time she pulled the trigger, making her paranoid about losing her balance next time and accidentally point the gun the wrong way. However, with a supportive coach, she quickly learned how to properly balance her stance at the end of the day.

On her second day, she learned how to get used to the sound of the propelling bullet. She was now able to hit the center of a circular target. The owner of the place was astonished by her fast improvement.

"You know, you adapted so fast you reminded me of a notable customer of mine. She started learning how to use a handgun at such an early age, as encouraged by her dad."

That alarmed the teenager. What GM just said sounded too familiar. _He had to be talking about my mom and grandfather,_ she thought.

"Oh really? Does your notable customer still go here?"

"Not anymore. It has been like more than two decades since I the last time I saw them. They said they were going to keep in touch. I'm glad I never heard from them since then."

"I see."

"I usually don't talk about my customers to another customer. I keep their identity confidential. But just for this time, I really just want to say how you remind me so much of her."

"Is it because of how fast I learned, or do I look like her by any chance?" she pushed further discreetly.

GM lowered his glasses and squinted his eyes to scrutinize the teenager thoroughly. "Hm. Now that I'm looking at you, you do resemble her. How cool. It's almost as if you are her daughter." He adjusted his glasses back. "To be honest, if you were indeed her daughter, I would probably ban you here for life."

"Aw, how cruel. Why?" the teenage girl forced a fake chuckle.

"Because those Nicolaous almost ruined my business and put my family in danger."

GM suddenly facepalmed as he accidentally revealed such a private information about the subject of the conversation. "Whoops, so much for keeping confidentiality." He then peeked at the teenager, who seemed to be unaffected by it.

But in reality, Ayano was trying very hard not to express fear upon hearing her real surname.

"You're not related with a family named Nicolaou, hopefully, right?"

The long-haired girl, who used a fake last name, had no choice but to lie. "I'm not. I have never heard of such a name. It sounds very foreign."

"Good. Let's change the subject. Since you are a fast learner, sooner I'll be able to teach you how to disassemble the gun that you are using, or maybe some self-defense techniques."

"Sounds good, GM-san. But I'm afraid that my session is over, so I will see you next week." The teenager quickly dismissed herself which left the older adult scratching his head.

"Ok then. Be safe out there!"

On her way home, she let out a huge exhale, thankful that she used a fake identity. She assessed the situation, whether or not it was safe for her to continue her investigation.

"I guess I'll have to consult with aunt Agatha first," she murmured to herself.

* * *

 **So uhm, I just finished outlining Yoshino's (Ayano's mom) backstory, and holy shit its so long. I probably won't put her whole story in this fanfic, maybe just small parts that I'll deem crucial for Ayano's development. Besides, I think Ayano might... drastically change if she learned the whole story, so I won't make her learn everything.**

 **If I did write Yoshino's full backstory, I'm only posting it in my tumblr sideblog and not here.**

 **I also have a feeling that my readers aren't really interested at mommy Nicolaou's story.**

 **Nevertheless, Please review!**

 **...**

 **Preview to next chapter: the date is May 26, which is Ayano's birthday! but something about the weather seemed to mock her. I wonder why?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi! Itsyoursis-Artemis here!**

 ***laughs nervously... haha I disappeared for a while. whoops.**

* * *

"So, you're saying that GM has grudges against our family?"

Agatha slammed her palms on the dining table, frustrated at the sudden revelation her niece presented. She was even more upset at the problems of unknown severity that her dad and sister left behind without any warning.

"I'm just glad I used a prepaid card to pay for your lessons or else my last name Nicolaou would have shown up in the transaction."

"Do you think there are more people out there who might have something against us?" The teenager's distress was apparent in her wavering voice.

Her aunt looked at her and exhaled loudly. "Calm down, Ayano. I've been living alone for almost two decades and never was I approached by someone expressing their hatred toward us. I am mad at dad for whatever he'd done in the past and leaving us to deal with it."

"But GM-san said grandpa almost endangered his family. What if grandpa made some enemies back then, got mom involved, and they are now on a run?"

"Then why would dad leave me by myself? I could have easily gotten kidnapped and held as hostage," Agatha pointed out.

"Unless grandpa Dimitri surrendered and in return his enemies have to leave you unharmed?"

Agatha realized the they were stretching the little information they have way too far. "Enough of this crazy talk. Dad is simple co-owner of a medium-sized corporation, Vulca, as far as I know. He's still listed as a CEO, and the last time I went to his headquarter they said that grandpa is still on indefinite leave."

"Then I must try to extract more information from GM-san, I feel like we are getting closer to an answer we've been looking for."

Agatha pinched both her niece's cheeks upon hearing a reckless suggestion. "Are you insane?! Like I'll let you go back to that place again, after hearing this from you."

"Quitting will raise suspicion. Which is why I should continue taking lessons from him as if nothing happened," Ayano firmly stated.

"He won't be suspicious of you for quitting."

"He will. Think about it aunt Agatha, he already saw my resemblance to his former favorite customer, then he accidentally blurted out his grudges against the Nicolaous, then all of the sudden I quit the place?"

The teenager had a point, so Agatha admitted her defeat. "Fine, but you have to be extremely careful from now on."

The long-haired girl painfully smiled back at her aunt. "I won't blow up our cover, I promise. I just want to find out the truth."

* * *

Gloom visited Wednesday in a form of storm. As they ate their lunch in the student council room, the senior representative noticed the sad expression on the usually, bubbly historian.

"So yeah, mom wants to fund my travel after I graduate, life is so good—Yano-chan, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, Mina-chan. It's just the rain," responded Ayano who then glanced at the scene outside, listening to the tapping sound the rain drops made as they hit the glass windows.

"I thought you like the rain?" Mina raised her eyebrow.

The Nicolaou girl indeed, loved the rain. In fact, she produced the best fashion sketches during downpour as it would provide her with a serene state that'd help her focus and transform a raw idea into a magnificent gem.

But today was different.

Today was her 18th birthday.

The long-haired girl didn't feel like telling Mina about it; she felt that nothing was really special about the day she got abandoned, nor did she feel the need to celebrate it.

 _It was also pouring hard when my mom abandoned me,_ Ayano thought heartbrokenly, as if the weather today mocked her.

"You suck at hiding your emotions. You look obviously sad. Tell me what's wrong," Mina voiced out her concerns.

"It really is just… the rain. I have to work in the disciplinary room today and this weather doesn't help alleviate the atmosphere of working with _him_ ," the long-haired girl lied.

"Oh. Is that so…" Mina wondered. "I still can't believe he offered you to be his secretary. You could have declined, so what on earth are you planning?"

 _I missed a piece of his puzzle._ "Nothing, really. I just thought it's a great idea to establish a good acquaintanceship with him."

"Right. _acquaintanceship_. Uh huh." Mina quoted. She squinted her eyes in suspicion. "You sure you really don't have a crush on him or anything?"

"I don't. I've told you so many times already," the historian sighed in defeat.

Funny enough, talking about the certain boy made Ayano forget for a minute about why she was feeling down today. _Sometimes, thinking about him makes me happy,_ she mentally chuckled.

 _Wait._

The Nicolaou girl quickly expelled the idea away. There was no way he made her happy. No. Way. Any other subjects could've brightened her mood up. It just happened that the lie she came up with made sense the most.

The bell rang and the girls packed up to go to their next class.

"Let's walk together Mina-chan?"

"Actually, I need to wait for the president to talk about uh... the agenda, once she comes back." Mina conspicuously averted her eyes away from Ayano.

"You're such a bad liar, Mina-chan," Ayano softly laughed. "It's ok. You do whatever you need to do." She waved goodbye then left.

The volleyball athlete, upon seeing her friend leave, quickly checked if the hallway was finally empty. Once the coast was clear, she immediately dashed toward the president's computer and successfully logged in. She frantically looked for the students' profiles and scrolled down to Ayano's.

"Oh _shit_. So that's why. It's her birthday today. And I didn't even know." Mina slammed her head on the desk. Her silly action made her accidentally hit the space button, which prompted to more personal information about her friend.

"She's from an orphanage?" she gasped in shock. She realized that looking at a confidential student information was probably illegal. And she felt bad. Really bad.

Not because she violated her friend's privacy. But because of her endless chatter about her fun life to Ayano, being insensitive to the fact that the transfer student couldn't probably relate due to the difference between their circumstances.

* * *

The weather made the environment looked like it came from the 1900's: the dark clouds dominating the sky rendered the whole town almost colorless—like the old, grey-toned photos from the mentioned era. The vintage effect took over; however, the small beam of light, which scattered and obstinately slipped through the governing dark clouds, allowed traces of colors to glow. The visiting wind—in contrast to the raging rain—was calm, as it delivered a cool yet appeasing breeze. The scent of the wet concrete pavement was prevalent, yet oddly enjoyed by many students.

Ayano headed toward the reception room for her secretarial duties. She wished she was home instead. She was not in a mood to deal with a _hormonal_ male being.

She contemplated about how in the beginning, she felt uncomfortable around Hibari. Uncomfortable due to his tendency to get triggered easily. Uncomfortable due to his position making her feel inferior.

And she hated that feeling.

Why was there a need for superiority? They should be at the same age, and consequently, they should be treating each other equally.

Were they even at the same age? Ayano has heard rumors about Hibari being older than them. Another rumor said that he should have graduated a year or two ago.

Nonetheless, she was fearless. She could definitely question his authority: She's very vocal in terms of expressing her opinions.

But the Nicolaou girl was not stupid. She knew she could not physically defend herself if Hibari decided to "bite her to death" for being defiant. She acknowledged his strength. She respected his passion to maintain peace not only in the school, but also the whole town. And for that, she'd rather allow him to be, well… himself. Especially now, to her surprise, he seemed to be more… tolerant and less violent.

She arrived and of course, just as she predicted, the boy was there. She let out a loud exhale as she entered the room and closed the door behind her. The head of the disciplinary committee didn't even need to shift his attention away from the paperwork; he expected his secretary to arrive on time. He kept his attention on his work while the long-haired girl sat down adjacent to him and started shuffling through the papers that were already on her desk.

"So, what do you want me to do with these?" initiated Ayano.

"Organize them in order of priority. Then create an agenda for the big meeting next Monday."

"Will that be all?"

"Hn…" there was a long paused. "Wait until I finished with my work."

Twenty minutes into their work, a familiar student suddenly barged in, interrupting the peace that the two people in the room were having. The disruptive student then started singing, prompting Ayano startled while Hibari, extremely annoyed.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Dear Yano-chan, HAPPPYYYYY BIRTHDAYYYY...TOOOOO….YOU!" the girl—who revealed to be Mina—sang while holding a small cupcake with a tiny lit candle in the middle.

"Make a wish Yano-chan!" the short-girl widely grinned.

The birthday girl was baffled upon how her dear friend found out about today; nevertheless, she appreciated her effort. She didn't believe in birthday wishes, so she pretended to make one. She then immediately blew the candle. Before she could say her thanks, the pissed skylark slowly rose from his seat.

"Senior representative, do you know the concept of knocking?" he hissed. "You rudely disrupted the peace in this room, and for that I will bite you to death," he declared as he flashed his tonfas.

Mina gulped. "I'M REALLY SORRY Hibari-san, I will leave now! Happy 18th girl!" She ran for the door but before she completely disappeared, she said a final word to her friend.

"Yano-chan, I'm sorry for being really busy right now, but I will take you out for a treat this weekend! I promise!"

The birthday girl, who wasn't able to say her thanks, chuckled. Hibari, on the other hand, decided not to chase the rude herbivore. He didn't want to waste his time today. He decided to be lenient because it was a certain girl's birthday. Did he care about it? _Absolutely not_ , he mentally claimed.

Ayano fixed her posture, laid the cupcake on her desk, and sighed as she stared at it. She then set it aside and continued with her task. Hibari noticed how she didn't seem happy about it. Weren't girls the ones who would always make their birthdays a huge deal? She seemed not to follow the stereotype. She didn't even say a word, as if nothing happened. There was no enthusiasm, whatsoever.

"You're unusually quiet." he broke the silence.

"How so?"

"I would have expected that you would be excessively talkative by now, perhaps educating me about random mythological things. But then, it's not that I care. I prefer silence anyways."

"And you are unusually, chatty right now, Hibari-san. I would have expected that you would be excessively mute by now, perhaps scolding me whenever I open my mouth. But then again, it's not that I care. I like talking."

She handed him the completed organized documents after her sassy response. The skylark did not expect that witty comeback of her. _Whatever._ He let it slide. It was a harmless response.

"You're not needed now." Hibari said.

"I still have to create the agenda," she raised her eyebrow.

"There's no more task for you today."

"Hm. Are you sure? Because I remember clearly you told me—"

"Just leave."

The Nicolaou girl looked at the window and again expressed such a sad face upon seeing the rain, which the male noticed. She then sighed and spoke.

"Can I stay here until the rain calms down?" she asked the male, her soft gaze displaying sincerity.

The skylark wouldn't mind. She was harmless, after all.

"How astonishing. You'd rather spend your birthday here? I rarely give members of my committee a free day. Just take it and leave," he blurted.

Ayano widened her eyes. "A simple happy birthday is enough, no need to be discreet and mean about it," she jokingly teased. "Besides, I didn't bring an umbrella with me. So, please?"

 _This woman._ "Hn. As long as you don't disrupt the peace."

She softly smiled at him, then took her sketch notebook out. She put her right arm on the table to support her head while she sketched with her left hand. It didn't take her a while to start nodding off. She put her head down then completely fell asleep on her desk.

The amused skylark was, well, amused. In front of him, was a girl, indifferent about her birthday, who sketched for 2 minutes, then fell asleep. The process was slightly entertaining for him to watch.

Three hours passed, and Ayano was still asleep. It was already seven at night when the buzz on her phone immediately woke her up. She sprang up and felt a black jacket over her back which kept her warm, realizing that it was Hibari's jacket. She noticed how the outside was already dark, yet the sound of the rain hitting the window was still ongoing. She looked around and behind her was also, a sleeping chairman on the couch who woke up from the still, ringing phone. Ayano searched for her phone, and upon finding it, she answered.

"Aunt Agatha?"

"Ayano, it's almost seven and you're not home yet. Where are you?"

"I'm still in school. I'm sorry I fell asleep in the reception room. I'll be home soon."

"Actually, stay there and I'll pick you up, it's still pouring hard."

"You're not working?"

"Not lot going on so I clocked out early."

"I see. Then I'll wait for you here aunt Agatha."

She hung up and noticed the yawning Hibari hasn't moved an inch from the couch. She slowly stood up, grabbing the jacket from her back, then quietly walked toward to him. She gave him back his jacket, bowed slightly, and thanked him. The male didn't respond.

"Hibari-san, you should've have woken me up earlier, I overslept in your office. Sorry about that."

"As I said, as long as you didn't disrupt the peace, then I don't really care."

"Then, I'll be on my way out." She quickly walked out of the room, and felt a warm sensation gently creeping up her face.

She could still smell a faint masculine fragrance on her uniform.

* * *

 **The next two chapters I will release three days apart. Then after that I'll be switching my update schedule to weekly (hopefully). College starts in 7 days soo...**

 **If you want to ask me anything, I do have a tumblr blog where you can reach me: khr-safeandsound . tumblr . com ... I post some tags/teasers and sometimes khr tags there, so uhmmm follow me?**

 **Please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello! I'm back, as promised :D**

 **To reader onceabluemoon: Wow, thank you for noticing and giving this fanfic a chance! I feel validated now haha p.s. I like your username because I love the moon :3**

 **To reader fuchsteufelswild: Thank you! It's great to know that my pacing is not too slow. Writing a HibarixOC is definitely a challenge, so it's pretty difficult to tell without a feedback from readers if I'm doing Hibari's character correctly, so thanks a lot!**

 **Please let me know what you think (and also if I made grammatical mistakes, I'll fix them quickly!) :D**

* * *

Summer.

Except that it wasn't completely, summer yet. But the stifling air of June indicated that the dreaded season already had its feet on the door. Windows in the classrooms were flung open, folding fans were out, and long hairs were tied up. Nevertheless, the humid weather didn't prevent the female disciplinary committee member from doing her job.

The Nicolaou girl returned to the reception room from her short restroom trip. She sat down on her desk and noticed how papers were scattered not only on Hibari's desk, but also on the floor. With one of the windows partially opened, she figured that the culprit of the disorder in the room was the sneaky wind.

 _Hibari-san is going to be pissed,_ Ayano mentally sighed. And since she didn't want to see his day to be ruined, she picked up the fallen papers on the floor and started reorganizing the mess on his desk.

About fifteen seconds later, the certain tonfa-yielding boy walked in the room with noticeable dirt all over his white uniform. The busy girl didn't bother to turn around as she organized his desk. She knew it was him.

For a second, Hibari almost didn't recognize the female in the room. However, he quickly realized that it was indeed her secretary, as if he already memorized her as easily as remembering the words to the school's anthem: her silky long hair, her slim shoulders, her tendency to tuck her hair behind her ears, the straight posture of her back, and the usage of her left hand more often due to being left-handed. It was all hers. And there was something else that added to his list.

He was accustomed to the sight of Ayano's long black hair and today, her hair was tied in a messy bun—exposing baby hair along the nape of her pale neck. Her slender neck made her appear soft and weak: traits that the skylark disliked yet he inexplicably desired to protect.

Oddly enough, the more he meticulously observed her, the more he started to appreciate her companionship, unbeknownst to him.

"You looked like you tripped on a dirt, are you ok?" blurted the Nicolaou girl as she returned to her seat after completing her little task. The chairman simply walked toward his desk and sat down.

"I punished the students whom I caught ditching. But those weak fools thought they could escape from me with a childish trick," Hibari paused as he stretched his extremities and then put his arms behind his head.

"Are you saying you got tricked?" Ayano widened her eyes and at the same time lightly applauded with her hands. The male was not amused with her response.

"To your disappointment, I did not get tricked, Nicolaou Ayano."

The girl was caught off guard. That was probably the first time Hibari called her by her full name. She was used to being called as a "woman", "herbivore", or "secretary", and it didn't really bother her. But she didn't think that the tone of her full name coming out from his mouth would have such an impact that left her… frozen.

"What?" the boy asked as he noticed the surprised girl.

"No-nothing," she dismissed. "So, what was their childish trick?"

He glanced at her, not sure if he should be even sharing stories with her. He decided to continue his sentence since she's harmless after all.

"A pitfall."

"Did you fall?" she was intrigued.

"Of course I didn't. Only idiots fall for such baits. Nevertheless, I beat them before they could get away."

"Your dirty uniform tells a different story though," smiled the girl.

"I heard a cry of a kitten from an abandoned area just outside the school. I had to crawl under the tall bushes to find it," he candidly responded.

 _Oohh, he has a soft spot for small animals,_ Ayano marveled. She simply smiled at him and diverted her attention back to her paperwork.

The male, on the other hand, sought for more verbal response. She could ask him where he placed the stray kitten. She could ask him what happened next. She could ask him anything. For some reason, his boredom made him want to keep the conversation going. There was only one more week of school left until summer vacation, which meant that he wasn't going to have a "battle of wits" with her for about three months.

"By the way, Hibari-san, I didn't think you're into… exotic accessories," she broke the silence.

"Excuse me?"

"Your spiky bracelet." She pointed at his wrist.

 _Ah, the Vongola gear_ , he thought. "It's none of your business."

"What does it say? Vo…Vongo… la? What does it mean?" she attempted to read the writing on his bracelet upside down.

"It means that if you keep asking about my bracelet I will add more work to your plate," he remarked.

"That top part on your bracelet kind of resembles a hedgehog," she inquired, ignoring his previous comment. He checked his wrist, even though he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"So what?" he questioned, exchanging a glance with her.

"Hmmm. You're so cute," Ayano chuckled, awed by the fact that Hibari wore a hedgehog-themed bracelet.

The Nicolaou girl instantly realized the way she phrased her statement.

She could not believe that she just called him cute. She thought that it was adorable of him to be attached to a cute bracelet. Sure he could be cute too, sometimes. _Maybe_.

But she didn't mean to be blatant about it. And as expected, Hibari didn't like the phrase.

"Don't call me that."

She let out a huge sigh due to the rejected compliment. "Okay. Any other names that I should refrain myself from using toward you?"

Hibari now desired silence. The conversation was getting bizarre, and he wanted to be excluded from it.

"I don't like where this conversation is going. You're noisy. Just do your work quietly."

* * *

Finals week was over, and students rejoiced for their long summer vacation. In contrast, club members had to stay longer after school to perform club logistics before they leave. Athletes also didn't get a break as they prepared for their summer tournaments. With that being said, the head of the disciplinary committee leaned back on the window of the reception room as he watched the students leaving the school.

 _Summer,_ he thought. Hibari didn't really have any plans for the next three months, besides patrolling the town. He then pondered upon how he could use his free time to experiment with his Vongola gear. Maybe he could try to come up with new techniques. Or even better, he could demand for a rematch with the bucking horse. But the foreigner was on the other side of the world, so unfortunately the fight would have to be postponed. He could also confront Yamamoto about the duel he promised in the beginning of the semester for letting Ayano off the hook.

Speaking of the baseball player, he detected Yamamoto walking with the rest of the Vongola gang.

Vongola. A mafia that he got unwillingly dragged into and strongly refused to be associated with. Yet ironically, this "family" granted him power and authority. When he was sent to the future to battle the Millefiore, he found out that his future self had a superior reputation in the mafia world. Being feared as the strongest guardian in the future, he must have accumulated a lot of influence over the Vongola family, which was evident when the future Tsunayoshi entrusted only him with the most risky and secretive mission during the Millifiore conflict. As much as he hated being referred to as a Vongola guardian, Hibari wanted to see what this whole mafia would offer him in the future.

His thought process was interrupted by a familiar figure who ran toward the Vongola gang. It was his secretary, holding a camera strapped around her neck. Hibari observed every movement of the female herbivore. He knew immediately that she was doing her historian job, despite of it being redundant due to already having a yearbook club. He watched as she chatted with them, and more so with the rain guardian. He watched her conversed happily, unveiling a wide smile he had never seen before.

Or rather, a happy expression she has never shown to him before.

The curious skylark watched as the rain guardian comfortably made skin contact with Ayano. He watched as she snapped a photo of the Vongola boys. And how she glanced at the outcome and laughed.

His gaze didn't leave her, focusing on the interaction between his secretary and Yamamoto.

He watched as the tall boy casually ruffled Ayano's hair. And how she held his wrist to stop him from further messing her hair. And how they both laughed.

 _How irritating._

Hibari walked away from the window and sat down on his desk. He started shuffling through the papers and then realized that he was messing the already organized pile of papers. He was definitely annoyed, but couldn't explain why. He reached for his pocket and took out his phone. He started typing away and instructed Kusakabe to do the patrol instead of the paperwork in the reception room.

Fifteen minutes later, suddenly—as if he was expecting it—Ayano entered the reception room.

"Kusakabe-san, here's the last paperwork from—oh." Her eyes slightly widened, not expecting the chairman to be in the room. "Hibari-san? I thought you were supposed to be patrolling right now?"

"I switched with Tetsuya." He quickly glanced at her and then back at his paperwork.

"I see. Well, as I was saying, this is the last paperwork from the student council." She handed him the paper which he grabbed in a rough swift.

Ayano was taken aback. The document would have torn from Hibari's action had she held the paper a little firmer. She wondered if she was hallucinating or that Hibari's demeanor just now was a little, aggressive?

"Is... there anything else you would like me to do before I leave?" the Nicolaou girl carefully asked.

"No. I don't want you here. Go away."

The girl tilted her head in confusion. His statement just now sounded too familiar—like how they used to interact when they first met. She definitely heard irritation in his tone which made her wonder if she angered him.

"You're upset. Did I do something wrong?"

Hibari was impressed by her perceptiveness. Granted, she didn't do anything wrong except crowded herself with the people he hated. Would that sound reasonable to her? Actually, he didn't need to explain himself. He just needed to be alone.

"No. I just hate your kind."

"You hate me?" she raised her eyebrow. "That sounds like the beginning of a love story," she jokingly murmured to lighten up the mood, which was clear enough for the skylark to hear.

"I don't like the way that sounded, woman."

"I was kidding," Ayano waved her hands in defeat. "I will leave now, have a great summer," she declared, quickly walking out of the room.

 _Love story, Hn._ he mentally snorted. _What a foolish idea._

* * *

"So, I assume you're in college? What career are you pursuing?"

The man whose head was wrapped in a bandana uttered his curiosity while loading a pistol with bullets for his female customer to use. The long-haired girl, whom he directed his question at, carefully thought her response before parting her lips.

"I'm currently studying fashion design," she forced a smile as natural as she could.

It wasn't a complete lie. Fashion design was a field that Ayano still planned to pursue after graduating high school.

"How fitting. No wonder you looked very well-put together when I first met you," beamed GM. He handed her the loaded pistol and resumed with his instructions. "I want you to practice with close range. I'll teach you some self-defense techniques. Since you've been practicing far range for two months now, show me your improved stance."

Ayano stood inside a booth stall that had walls on both sides, her legs with perfect distance to support herself from the recoil. She stretched her arms perpendicular to her body, firmly grasping the gun while relaxing her shoulders. She then waited for further instruction.

"Good posture. Now lower the angle of your arms to the knee of your target. Decrease the distance of your legs by about a fourth," instructed GM.

The long-haired girl followed through. She immediately noticed the difference between her original position and the adjustment of her posture. Her calves automatically tensed up: she had a hunch that her front leg must have more weight.

GM noticed how the girl adjusted the allocation of her weights on her own accord. He was impressed by her instinct. Nevertheless, he still educated her with the physics behind her position.

"Very good. The recoil will have some upward component since you are shooting at a downward angle, therefore you must put more weight on the front leg."

"I see. No wonder it felt right when I slightly leaned my front leg forward. Now for a scenario. Where will I specifically shoot to immobilize a threatening person in front of me?" Ayano inquired.

GM took out a laser pointer and pointed at the knee of a life-size, anatomy drawing about five feet away from them.

"There. You want to avoid this other area as that is where an artery is located," he moved the laser slightly upward. Ayano simply nodded. He then continued before putting a hearing protection on the girl, "Now shoot. Try to remember how the rebound will feel like."

She took a deep breath, adjusted the angle of her arms to aim at the point that the laser was pointing at. She then pulled the trigger.

"Not bad. But you just hit the artery. Let's try again," GM mused. "Did you remember how the momentum backward felt like?"

"I… kind of. It happened too fast. I think I need to do it again," sighed Ayano.

"That's ok. I'll help you until your session is up." he pressed the button on the wall which prompted an assembly line to bring up a new life-size poster with an anatomy model drawn on it.

* * *

 **Please review!**

 **I can't wait to publish chapter 13 and 14 because of the ten year bazooka and one character switching with their TYL counterpart and AHHH. But they're going to need some intense proofreading so please be patient with me.**

 **Also pleasseeee let me know what you think, reviews give me lots of motivation and desire to improve. Like, am I doing Hibari's character right? Am I writing him OOC? Is Ayano a Mary sue (hopefully not)? Gimme some feedback :D**

 **PS: the whole physics thing during her firearm training, it probably didn't make sense because I just kind of, made it up... I do have some physics knowledge due to my major, but I didn't want to spend a long time explaining the science behind the training. Soooo please forgive me if the last part of this chapter sounded stupid lol**

 **Alright I'll see you next time!**


	13. Chapter 13

**OMG this was long.**

 **It took me forever to revise it and I feel like I still need to proofread it.**

 **to reader fuchsteufelswild: OMG you are sooo amazing thank you for your feedback I needed it so much T_T I'm super glad you enjoy this fic!**

 **Please review ya'll!**

* * *

The Namimori Summer Festival commenced in the middle of August and lasted for a week. It was a family-friendly event: there were game booths, various concerts of local bands, food trucks, entertaining exhibitions, interactive contests, a carnival, and a spectacular firework show at the last day to conclude the week-long festival.

In the past years, everyone would wear yukatas as part of the tradition. However, since the month was a hot one, attendees resorted to dressing up lightly. The scorching weather did not prevent the participants from showcasing their summer fashion senses. For instance, Ayano's outfit consisted of a sky-blue floral romper with laced-up sandals and an ivory sunhat. Whereas Mina wore high-waisted denim shorts that accentuated her long legs and paired it with a white crop-top and white Adidas shoes.

The two had just surrendered from their failed attempts of beating a game booth that offered a huge panda stuffed animal as a grand prize, after realizing that the booth might have been rigged. Ayano wanted to win the grand prize so she could give it to an orphan kid in Vesta House whom she remembered was very fond of pandas. The two girls felt very stupid when they realized too late that the amount of money they wasted on that game booth could have been used to purchase the same stuffed animal at the mall.

After settling under the shade of a tree to take a break, the two girls chatted about their summer. Mina mentioned how they have been practicing rigorously as their overall dynamics have weakened due to their star player sitting out for the rest of the season for a torn knee ligament. As a result, she expressed her concern that the second-seed Namimori girls' volleyball team might lose their title soon.

Ayano, on the other hand, spent most of her summer in the Vesta house, telling Fujioka Tara about her school life as a historian of the student council and the secretary of another committee. The Nicolaou girl didn't reveal to Tara the information about GM; she didn't feel the need to involve another person in such a dangerous game, nor did she think it was appropriate to tell Tara that she used her last name as a pseudo name. Ayano perceived her numerous lies as unforgivable. After all, it was not in her character to deceive. Mina simply patted her shoulder, offering her best friend as much comfort and support as she needed in the pursuit of her missing mother.

Their peaceful conversation was interrupted by an approaching familiar crew of boys.

"Gokudera, I don't think you're supposed to threaten the owner if you couldn't win his booth," expressed the tall male who revealed to be Yamamoto.

"You idiot, you couldn't tell? It's obvious that their gig is rigged, which means we've been scammed! Our money was basically stolen!" yelled back by the exasperated Gokudera.

"Gokudera-kun, it's okay, we can just try the other booths," Tsuna calmly reassured.

"But Juudaime, you said you wanted the huge panda? I will do everything even if it means destroying that damn booth!" he suddenly flashed his dynamites out, making the Vongola boss to panic.

"No, no! No need to resort to destruction Gokudera-kun!"

While Tsuna was busy calming down his enraged storm guardian, Yamamoto spotted the familiar girls which prompted him to wave at them.

"Todou-san! Ayano-san! It's been a while," cheered the baseball player.

"Good day Yamamoto-kun, and his other _irrelevant_ friends _,_ " Mina rolled her eyes.

"Ah! Good afternoon," greeted Tsuna, not hearing her mean comment just now.

"Tsk. Great, it's the senior rep," snarled the silver-haired boy.

"You guys are lively, as usual. What have you guys been up to?" the polite Nicolaou girl slightly bowed to the cheerful group.

"Well, we just came from a whack-a-mole booth. Tsuna wanted to win the big panda bear, but it seemed like the place was rigged, according to Gokudera," shrugged the baseball player.

"We actually just came from there too! Too bad we realized that too late," sighed the long-haired girl.

"Tsuna-kun probably wanted to give the stuff toy to the girl he likes," nonchalantly blurted the red-headed boy, whom Ayano remembered as Kozato Enma. His statement made Tsuna evidently blush.

"Hello Kozato-san, it has been a while. Did someone bully you again?" Ayano genuinely voiced out her concern due to a noticeable amount of wounds and bandages plastered all over the red-haired boy.

"No, I've been practicing sparring with Tsuna-kun."

"Sparring?"

"Yes, he's training to be a strong Vongola bo—" the redhead was interrupted by the shriek of his best friend.

"AHH! We were roller-skating and racing at a place called…uhh… Vongola… yes. We're both clumsy, so we ended up crashing to each other...uh, multiple times. We didn't really spar," sweated the spiky-haired boy.

The girls looked at each other, both detecting the lie in his explanation. However, his life wasn't their business, so they went along with his statement and shrugged, making Tsuna sigh in relief.

Moments later, three kids approached the group. One of them was bald with a single braid on the center of her head, the other in a cow-like costume, and the last one wearing a suit and a fedora hat. The long-haired girl immediately recognized the third kid.

"Oh, you are Tsuna-san's cousin, Reborn, right?"

"Ah, Hibari's secretary. Good afternoon," greeted Reborn.

"Indeed, I am. I do have a name. You remember, right?"

"Of course I do, Ayano-chan. So how's your relationship with Hibari then?"

"Relationship? You're a funny one, Reborn," she chuckled.

"See? Even the kid knows, Yano-chan," winked Mina. The volleyball player stood from her spot and brushed off the dirt on her shorts. "I'm going to the restroom and then buy some more teriyaki chicken after that. I'll be back."

When the tall girl disappeared from Ayano's sight, a loud explosion was heard nearby, so close that the long-haired girl felt a small shock wave. Shortly afterwards, one of the kids let out a high-pitched cry. She turned around to see Gokudera arguing with the kid in the cow costume.

"You idiot! When I ask to see if your Vongola gear is still intact, don't give me a grenade!" Gokudera pinched the kid's cheeks so hard. The sight of him hurting a kid made the long-haired girl furious.

"Bakadera you're the idiot one! It hurts! Let me go!" cried Lambo.

Tsuna's shriek contributed to the noise that was ascending in volume.

"HIEE! Lambo, don't throw a live grenade here! You could have seriously hurt someone!"

 _Live grenade?_ Ayano was alarmed. The commotion was so confusing that she started feeling a shooting pain on the side of her head. _It must be migraine,_ she mentally groaned. She blamed her sudden migraine from the shock wave of whatever exploded ten seconds ago.

"Baka Tsuna! Go away, go away!" Lambo continuously cried.

The high-pitch cry—in addition to the noisy, lively background of the festival—exacerbated Ayano's headache. It was stressing her out that she had enough. She walked toward Gokudera and slapped his hands away to protect the child.

"What are you doing, Gokudera-san? You're hurting a kid!" accused the caring girl while hugging Lambo.

To add to the messy situation, the commotion attracted a certain attendee—or more like a person patrolling the town—who appeared at such the worst time of the day.

"All of you are disrupting the peace here. Prepare to get bitten to death."

The boys reacted in synchrony. All Tsuna could let out was a loud squeal. Gokudera screamed "bring it on!". The baseball athlete nervously laughed at their impending doom, and likewise, Enma slowly backed away. Then there was Reborn, who quietly sipped his drink while sitting on a nearby bench as he watched the situation unfold before his eyes.

Ayano's ears started ringing. Her migraine was oddly getting worse, and on top of that she just had to hear a familiar cold voice. She turned around and to her surprise, it was indeed _him_.

"Hibari-san?"

Hibari and Ayano exchanged glances. He detected confusion and annoyance in her eyes. In addition to the chaos in front of him, the scenery of his secretary crowding with the people he hated heightened his irritation.

Suddenly, the still crying Lambo frantically searched for _something_ in his big fluffy head. Tsuna, quickly realizing what was about to happen, attempted to warn the girl who was comforting the kid.

He was a second too late.

"Ayano-san! Get away from him!"

"Huh?" she turned to him. As soon as she returned her attention to the kid, she caught a glimpse of a purple, canon-looking like, big object.

The next thing she saw was darkness.

* * *

A heavy smoke screen polluted the spot where the Nicolaou girl was last seen. Upon clearance, a slightly taller, matured-looking woman was on the ground, confusion written all over her face. She scratched her head and blinked three times at the group of young boys in front of her before blurting her first words out.

"Ah! Little Vongolas!" gasped the woman from the future while cupping both her cheeks in a perplexing manner. She stood up and straightened her long skirt that snuggly hugged her thighs and hips.

"Ayano from ten years in the future," Reborn approached the woman and offered a handshake. "How's the future going?"

"Reborn-san! It's been awhile, the future is great!" older Ayano enthusiastically shook his hands. "So the past me got hit by Lambo's bazooka, how cool is that!"

"You just said Vongola a while ago," murmured Tsuna anxiously. "Does that mean that you know…about the mafia?"

"Stupid Tsuna, it means that she became a member of the family in the future," reborn smirked which made the silver-haired boy roll his eyes.

"That's awesome! I bet you made a fantastic addition to the Vongola!" happily commented Yamamoto.

"How perceptive of you Reborn-san. But did I really join the mafia? Who knows…" She put her index finger on the corner of her mouth and smiled to express ambiguity. "Nevertheless, I can't believe that I would be back in the past. This is all very nostalgic."

She scanned her surrounding, amazed at how she vividly remembered this memorable festival. She attended it with Mina, and she remembered how they tried to win a giant teddy bear but couldn't. She also remembered her interaction with these young mafia members. However, what she didn't recall was getting hit by the ten-year bazooka, which made her become aware of possibly creating a parallel universe.

Suddenly, she saw from the corner of her eyes a person that made her widen her eyes and point her finger eagerly.

"Oh my god. It's a small, cutie Kyoya!"

The skylark was not pleased by the informality he received. Although, to be fair, he didn't know if his future self allowed her to behave that way, so he simply dismissed the rudeness of the future girl only for this time.

"I only got five minutes, so I'm going to take advantage of this _wonderful_ opportunity," clapped the older female. She approached the cloud guardian, which made the rest of the boys hold their breath. She halted right in front of him at such a distance trespassing his personal space.

The two exchanged glances: his steel, narrow, dominating eyes against her soft, cloudy gray, persisting eyes.

"What do you want, woman?" He broke the silence.

The future Ayano simply grinned, but he detected a miniscule hint of wickedness behind the radiance of her smile. The next thing that occurred was the most daunting and dangerous act that sent gasps and shivers to the spectators within the premises.

SLAP!

Such an action made the time metaphorically froze, while the sound of her hand making a contact with his cheek traveled freely throughout the area. The action froze the crew and even the usually calm Reborn.

 _What the hell._

The cloud guardian couldn't believe what just happened. He just got slapped by the future Ayano, and he didn't see it coming. For what reason? He couldn't think straight for several seconds as his right cheek throbbed. The sting he felt indicated that the female did not hold her strength at all.

 _The audacity of this herbivore_.

Everything came into existence again as the clock resumed ticking. The skylark wiped the blood spot on the corner of his mouth due to accidentally biting lips from the impact. The older female, on the other hand, started taking off her stiletto shoes and smirked.

"Catch me if you can," she mocked as she started running away.

The very pissed Hibari glared at the running female before he started chasing her.

"Don't ever think you can get away from me, herbivore."

The rest of the crew looked at each other, and no one was sure if they should try to rescue the future Ayano from getting bitten to death.

"She'll be fine," claimed Reborn as he quickly disappeared out of nowhere, possibly following the female fugitive.

* * *

The skylark was confident that the woman could not have gotten that far away. _It hasn't even been a minute_ , he wondered. He was now at an isolated area just outside the festive and nearby a forest.

He then heard a rustle above a huge tree. There he found the woman sitting on the branch, happily humming along the chirps of the birds around.

"Sorry about that, Kyoya. I was mad at your future self today." She looked up at the clouds, reminiscing at the past.

"And taking it out on me solves your problem? It seems that you've grown immaturely, Nicolaou Ayano," he glared at her. She stared down at him, challenging his gaze firmly.

"You're right. I should have not done that," she conceded. "But you know, it was my only way to get your undivided attention."

"It's apparent that you've acquired the ability to be my opponent. Get down here and fight me. Or should I have to cut the tree to force you?"

"Oh honey, let's not do illegal logging. Mother earth is watching you," she playfully winked, which made the skylark cringe and possibly intensified his irritation.

"Don't call me that. It's disgusting."

She simply chuckled. "Okay, I'll get down, but I won't fight, let's avoid resorting to violence please."

When she finally landed on the ground, Hibari noticed something fierce about the older female, compared to her submissive, present self. Her appearance probably contributed to her strong presence: she was wearing a long, black pencil skirt with a gray, long-sleeve, tucked-in, blouse that had black polka-dots pattern. The black high heels and dark raspberry lipstick asserted such an undeniable allure. Her long hair was as jet black as ever, although the only noticeable difference was that she had no fringes.

"Stop staring, boy. It's creeping me out," teased Ayano.

"I'm going to bite you to death."

"Kinky."

Hibari was now full-on mad. He charged at her, but she didn't move an inch. Instead, she successfully impeded his tonfas, which surprised the young boy.

"Listen here brat. I came from the future. I would know how to at least stop that basic attack of yours." She pushed him back.

 _Brat? Basic attack?_ He definitely felt offended. He once more brandished his tonfas but halted his movement upon seeing a gun being pointed at him.

He'd admit, he was impressed. He didn't even see where she pulled the gun from.

"Wao. You do have the potential to be a worthy opponent," he smirked.

The 28-year-old female lowered her gun down and quickly disassembled it in front of him to prove that she was not a threat. "See? I don't want to fight. And I don't have enough time. Please hear me out."

"No."

 _Stubborn as usual,_ she thought.

"Let me tell you something. I'm happy in the future and my feelings are genuine. However, sometimes, the past still haunts me," she mumbled, displaying such contradicting expressions: heartbroken yet satisfied, while playing with—what Hibari assumed—her wedding ring.

"The concept sounds ludicrous to the skeptics, but you believe in it, right? Parallel worlds. There are multiple versions of the future branching out from the present. And influencing the outcome of your future—I don't care if you think I'm being greedy—is absolutely going to create another future, hopefully different from mine."

Her statements were cryptic enough that kept the skylark intrigued. Ayano continued.

"Now, to the point I'm trying to make. Kyoya, you can have multiple prides with equal importance. It doesn't just have to be about the safety of your beloved town. You'll develop another pride. Don't discard it, because it's very much real."

"Woman, you are not making any sense to me."

"I can't reveal more. I don't want to upset my universe, you know. Just live your life, make the decisions you think are the best. But please hear this one last thing out. One day will come where all you'll have to do is to stay."

"And what if I don't adhere to your incoherent instruction. You can't educate me about how I want my future to come out." Not forgetting the incident four minutes ago, he charged at her once more, to which she successfully dodged again.

"Damn it, Kyoya. I'm just trying to help you! Fine, I'll tell you something. Your future self denies it, but he's living his life with one regret. Do you want to end up like him?"

"That won't happen to me. Is that really all you are worried about? Don't underestimate me, I'm much stronger than you think, herbivore."

The older female displayed a bored and disappointed look, exhaling as a sign of defeat. "Fine, then. Enjoy losing her again."

Before he parted his lips to respond, smokes suddenly surrounded the future woman. When the smoke cleared out, the present girl appeared, who looked like she was shielding herself from something. She peeked behind her arms, and realized that she was back in Namimori.

"What… in the world just happened?" The present Ayano looked around, her voice slightly quivered.

Hibari relaxed his stance. He wasn't going to punish the present girl for what her future self did to him. Reborn, who had been secretly watching the interaction between the present cloud guardian and the future girl, finally revealed himself.

"You're finally back to your senses, Ayano-chan. you might have eaten something weird that resulted to hallucinations," Reborn claimed, making Hibari raise his eyebrow before receiving the look of "just-go-with-it" from the toddler.

"Uhh. No that can't be. I was just in a big, fancy room, talking to this one older male adult."

The infant approached the confused girl and handed her a water bottle. "No, you were frantically running around and screaming nonsensical stuff. Hibari had to chase you down because you were causing a scene."

She didn't remember eating anything bad, but she did recall having a terrible migraine while comforting the kid in the cow costume. She scanned her surroundings once more, and she was at a different area away from the festival, which corresponded with Reborn's assertion that she "frantically ran around". _Did my migraine possibly give me hallucinations?_

What's worse, apparently, Hibari had to pursue her. If what Reborn said was true, Ayano could probably implode from the embarrassing ruckus she created. As her gaze met his, the skylark noticed how she was starting to believe Reborn's lie. He smirked, thinking how he could use her "embarrassment" to get back at her future self.

"I didn't think you're capable of humiliating yourself. Next time, watch what you put in your mouth or you'll lose your sanity." His statement sent an offending and terrifying gasp on the female, while he walked away feeling accomplished at fooling the gullible girl.

On his way home, he couldn't help but replay in his head the conversation he had with the older woman.

 _"_ _Enjoy losing her again."_

He wondered what the future Ayano's last statement pertained to.

* * *

 **We'll see what the present Ayano experienced in the future in the next chapter.**

 **Haha and yes, the future seems to be different from what we all expected. but as TYL Ayano said, her action could give birth to another future where this story is actually going to head.**

 **Pleaseeeee review! What are your thoughts about TYL Ayano's vague statements?**


	14. Chapter 14

**I CAME BACK! I missed this so much, I apologize for such a long wait! I am going to be 10 times more busy in the next five weeks, so I won't be able to do a bi-weekly update.**

 **HOWEVER, I will publish the next chapter before the Halloween season ends! Chapter 15 occurs around the Halloween week (the chapter is 3/4 done), so it makes sense that I publish it while our Halloween spirit is still alive. Haha.**

 **To reader Etha: Thanks for dropping by! and who know what happened in the future ;)**

 **To reader Peristeria: who is "her"? who knows? *extreme double winks ;;))**

 **To reader** **Fuchsteufelswild: Thanks for the review! The reason it felt brief was because I was trying to stay consistent with the 5 minute limit of the ten year bazooka, if I remember correctly (please correct me if I'm wrong). Also, I actually agree with you about Hibari being too easy on her. This was why I mentioned in the last chapter that I could've revised it more. The thing is, I'm not good with like, writing a fight scene or an intense argument, but I've been looking it up and reading about them so I can be better at it in the future. And don't worry, I'll take all the criticism in order to improve as a writer :D**

 **To Guest: aww I'm glad you revisited the fandom and found this fic!**

 **Short recap: Last chapter we saw the interaction between present Hibari and TYL Ayano. Part of this chapter will be about the present Ayano in the future.**

 **As always, Please review!**

* * *

The 18-year old Nicolaou girl coughed sporadically as heavy fog surrounded her from head to toe. She flailed her hands up in the air frantically to clear her sight. As her vision got clearer, the group she was just with was nowhere to be seen. Alarmingly, the lively festive was also gone. Instead, she was now in a large, luxurious room with exquisite design that gave her a modern _Château_ vibe: elegant chandeliers, golden vinyl wallpaper, dark burgundy carpet, wooden well-polished furniture, French double doors, and somehow an odd mechanical vintage clock that did not fit in with the affluent interior.

"Where… in the world am I?" Ayano panted, her shortness of breath implied distress due to the sudden unfamiliarity of her surroundings. It was like she got teleported. However, such concept didn't make sense to her. As far as she knew, teleportation hasn't even been achieved in her era. Therefore, she had to be dreaming, right? Or perhaps, hallucinating?

 _Yes, I must be dreaming,_ a confident and optimistic thought that calmed the girl from the present. She exhaled deeply and strolled around the room carefully, touching any tangible objects she passed by. She swiped her index finger on the ledge of the fireplace, accumulating dust upon lifting her finger up. She then approached the window and observed the serene landscape, appreciating the enormous effort the "gardeners" in her "dream" must have spent to keep the outdoors beautiful. The long-haired girl eventually returned her attention back to the room, surveying the area once more for other things to notice.

After two trips around the room, she concluded one thing: she was probably not dreaming. Everything just felt too real to her: the things around her felt very concrete, she could control her thoughts and actions, and in general, she just felt… alive. _I must have fainted or something, and was brought here,_ she claimed. She blamed her migraine if she did pass out earlier. Her headache was already gone, thus it must have meant that she received a good amount of rest. This sounded reasonable, but for some reason, it just, didn't feel… right.

"Let's see, I was at a festival, with Mina-chan. Yamamoto-san and his friends were there as well. Then there were kids, one in a cow costume whose name was Lambo. Lambo was crying because Gokudera-san was hurting him. I tried to comfort the kid. Then as if a deity played a prank on us, Hibari-san popped out of nowhere. After that…" she paused after a lengthy conversation with herself. She repeated her self-talk multiple times, but every time she tried to remember what occurred after the head of the disciplinary committee appeared, her memories would lead to a dead-end street.

Maybe if she found another person, they could provide a valid explanation? The only way to find out was to investigate what the outside entailed to. Ayano mustered up all her courage, approached the door, and turned the knob slowly. The heavy door creaked loudly as she slowly pulled it. She partially opened the door, creating a small gap yet wide enough for her to take a peak outside.

She scanned the hallway. There were no signs of people, which made her feel safe enough to step out. At least the hallway didn't have as busy of an appearance compared to the room she "woke up" in. But still, the displayed decorations resembled that of a palace: arched architecture perfectly in synced with the Renaissance-themed paintings hung on the wall as well as the sculptures that were evenly spaced along the long hallway. _Just what is this place!?_ The place was too grand that she believed she had no right to be in the vicinity.

She closed the door behind her, and slightly flinched at how loud the noise it made. She gently walked down the hallway, passing by the paintings on the wall. For a moment, Ayano forgot her current situation due to how mystifying the paintings were on the wall. She screened each painting like a tourist in an art exhibition, and being easily absorbed by the artistry, she didn't realize how far down the hall she has gotten—too far that her stroll was actually leading to an enormous empty ballroom.

Suddenly, before she could react to the grandness of the ballroom, her little exploration got interrupted by a deep, masculine voice behind her.

"You. What are you doing here?"

Ayano jolted and froze. As a stranger, she would probably be perceived as an intruder, security would then be called, and who knew what was going to happen next. However, something about the voice sounded very familiar, but she failed to identify it. She carefully turned around, and saw the owner of the voice: a tall man in a suit, his sharp metallic gaze landing upon her terrified, yet defiant pupils.

The male widened his eyes. He immediately realized that the female in front of him was from the past. She was shorter than her future counterpart, and that alone was enough for him to conclude his hunch. _The ten-year bazooka,_ he mentally noted. He grabbed her arm and dragged her to a room few feet away from them. Upon entering, he closed the door and locked it. He turned around and to his surprise, the present girl was quick on her feet and was already at the other end of the room, holding out a knife. _Where did she get the knife from?_ he mused. It turned out that they were in a kitchen.

"Stop right there, don't come any nearer to me!" The Nicolaou girl's both flight and fight response kicked in. She has never held a knife in such a threatening and dangerous way, but she knew she just got dragged in a fancy-looking kitchen by a grown-up man, and scenarios in her head were definitely playing the bad ones. She wished she could call the police for help, but her purse that contained her phone was nowhere to be found.

"Or what?" the male responded, expressing a bored look from across the room.

"I'll… I'll do everything to protect myself," she bluffed, because she was too terrified to actually use a knife as a self-defense tool.

"You can't even hurt a fly, let alone use that against me," the male taunted, slowly approaching Ayano.

"I'm warning you, stop moving!"

"What if I don't?"

"I won't hesitate to use this!"

"Okay, go ahead."

When she realized that he wasn't listening to her, she quickly shuffled even farther away from him. However, she was not as agile as the older male, whom in one swift motion, suddenly appeared in front of her and easily disarmed the terrified girl. The male pushed her against the wall, cornering the frightened female with his long arms.

Ayano was about to yell for help but was impeded by him at the right time, covering her mouth to prevent any sound from escaping her throat.

"Don't scream. Be quiet."

The Nicolaou girl was restrained of her movement: the man's left arm blocking her from escaping, his right hand covering her mouth, while his big profile intimidating her that she was too scared to fight back even if she wanted to.

"St-stop… Please don't hurt me," she managed to form a coherent sentence despite being muffled by a much stronger man.

Ayano grabbed the his arms, gripping them hard to indicate that she wanted to be released. However, the male simply stared at her with such a passionate gaze, which had a hint of pain behind it. Oddly, she felt… secured? She slowly lowered her guard, and met the gaze that was highly familiar.

"Let me go," she begged behind his palm that was covering her mouth.

The male in the black blazer and purple long-sleeve shirt slowly removed his hand that covered her mouth. He then traced the girl's jawline until his hand reached her chin. He tilted her chin so carefully as if she was fragile. His thumb ran across her soft cheek, taking his time to look at all the details on her face. Her nose, her soft lashes, the iris of her eyes, the natural light contour of her cheekbones, and finally, his fingers traveled to her left ear, where he tugged a few hair strands behind her ear to look at the mole that he found endearing.

Now that she was not being muffled, the frightened girl could have yelled for help, but she saw the pain in his eyes, and for some reason, she wanted to know the cause of it.

"Have…we met before?" she broke the peaceful silence.

The older male's sense of hearing was impaired for a few seconds that felt like a minute, cherishing what seemed to be a moment he had sought for. He rested his forehead against Ayano's small shoulder, prompting the girl to shudder slightly. However, she felt warmth and not hostility. She might not know this man, nor if he was going through a rough time, but she deciphered such behavior as a need for comfort.

After the taller man realized that he just exhibited such an out-of-character softness, he pushed himself away from the intimate moment.

"No, we haven't," he responded to her question.

Ayano was not as fearful anymore. For some reason, she sensed that the man in front of her would not pose any harm. She gained her confidence to fight back and took this chance to free herself from his grip by attempting to knee him on his groin. However, the man was too perceptive and successfully blocked her silly and futile attack.

"You're getting bolder," the man was amazed.

"Do you need something from me? I'm not an intruder of this place, I promise. Just let me go and I'll leave right away."

The older male, entertained by Ayano's lack of understanding and knowledge about time traveling, played along with her confusion. "But you are a trespasser. I could easily turn you to the security guard for committing a crime."

"I'm not a trespasser, I just woke up in this place, not remembering what happened beforehand. I am telling the truth," she firmly declared, her self-composed trait coming back after being terrified some minutes ago.

"Good luck explaining that to the police." He lied about turning her over to the authority. He was merely testing her wits, like how he remembered them back then.

"Who are you anyways? And what was that just now? Touching my face and all that, you are making me feel uncomfortable, pervert," fought back Ayano.

 _This woman_ , the male narrowed his eyes, displeased by the undesired answer.

"Watch what you're saying or I'll feed you to the bears in the nearby woods." He glared at her. His threat was not serious; he was simply curious at her next response. He raised his eyebrow in amazement as he watched her fearless façade turned into a frown.

"Using your physical advantage to make the weaker one to submit to you. Horrible. Go ahead then, I'd rather be eaten by those bears than be in the same room as you." Her pupils flared, which surprised the older man. He didn't remember her to have such ferocity in the past, but it was more than enough to impress him.

He finally gave her private space by releasing her. "What an interesting reaction. But I'm afraid your time is up, Nicolaou Ayano."

Ayano's forehead wrinkled upon hearing him say her name. "Wait, you just said my name. You know me?"

"I'm glad you're not deaf," he sarcastically remarked. "Now go away. One last thing before you go back to Namimori: tell him that when it's real, do not walk away from it," the grown-up man genuinely instructed.

"Tell who? Wait a minute. How do you know me? Who are you? Where is this place?"

The present female grabbed his wrist to demand for answers. She clutched on his sleeves that revealed a familiar spiky bracelet, which made her recall the only person who wore such a unique accessory. Before she could utter another word, she suddenly got engulfed by heavy smokes. The older male adult watched as the more matured woman appeared.

"You." the future Ayano softly mumbled. "Did you interact with her?"

He ignored her question and walked toward the exit. He was then blocked by the adamant female.

"What did you tell her?"

"It's none of your business," nonchalantly responded the man.

"Of course it is, that was the past me."

"Then why don't you tell me your short adventure in the past, and how you perhaps talked to my past self?" He did not receive a response from her. "Hn. Never thought your silence could be this loud."

"Just move on. Please." Ayano exhaustingly pleaded.

"Don't act like you have."

"Of course I have, I'm already married to someone else, for goodness sake!" She wasn't lying about the 'moving on' part. But for some reason, her tone slightly indicated that she was also not being completely honest.

He shoved her aside. "This future… is too boring."

"It's better this way. A little boring and lonelier, but it is for the best," she softly murmured as her gaze followed him before he walked out of the room and disappeared completely out of her sight.

She was being selfish with trying to influence her past. It was never going to change her situation right now, but if she remembered correctly, a certain white-haired boss of another powerful mafia family told her that a parallel world can be created. The future Ayano hoped that what she did triggered enough reaction for that to happen. Her character changed so much, she admitted, and part of that change was becoming greedy, compared to her past self. She knew, from deep within, that she was not supposed to turn out like this.

And all she wanted was to change the course of her past so that hopefully somewhere in a different universe, there's an Ayano with her real values still intact.

She tapped the back side of her waist to grab her gun. Upon not feeling the object she wanted to see, she massaged her temples in a frustrated manner.

"Oh no. I left my gun in the past. He is **not** going to be happy about this."

* * *

It has been about a month since that incident. Fall semester just started, and for the graduating class, it meant that there were six months left of their high school career. Most had started applying for universities as well as studying for the corresponding college entrance examination. Then there was the small percentage of Namimori students who planned to do something else: travel, enter the workforce, vocational school, or simply take a year-long break. Nevertheless, everyone had one thing in common: to pass all the classes and receive a high school diploma.

One presence disturbed the diligent students who were studying for their college entrance exam due to the generated screams of the girls that could be heard from a mile away, piercing through the eardrums of the unconcerned others nearby. The crowd around a classroom made Ayano and Mina also investigate the commotion out of curiosity.

"It's Dino-sensei! He's back!" shrieked one girl.

Mina immediately rolled his eyes upon hearing a particular name and realizing what the ruckus was all about. "Oh, it's the foreign teacher. He's back. I wonder why."

"I assume that he's very attractive, based on the screams of those girls," chuckled Ayano.

"I guess he's pretty charming. But not my type," shrugged the volleyball player.

As the two walked past the screaming crowd, Ayano caught a quick glimpse of the famous foreigner due to his outstanding blond hair. She quickly averted her gaze upon making an eye contact with him. Three seconds was all she needed to fully comprehend why the girls were going crazy.

"Ah! You! Wait up!" Dino yelped which caused everyone to turn around and follow the direction of his pointing finger.

Mina and Ayano halted their steps in synchrony, automatically reacting to a call that may or may not even pertain to them.

"Hi there! Nicolaou Ayano, right?" Dino happily proclaimed, approaching the historian and the senior rep of the student council whom gave each other the look of surprise.

"Hello, Sir," the long-haired girl reluctantly bowed. How he knew of her name baffled her. "Can I help you?"

"Reborn told me about you, about how you're an interesting fella!"

The long-haired girl slightly tilted her head. "The toddler did? Huh, how so?"

"That you're a brave girl because you work for Kyoya! How do you like working with him? On a more important note, wanna learn more about him?" Dino playfully inquired.

Mina simply gave her friend a suggestive look while the latter raised her eyebrow in question.

"Oh, I mean… uhhh… it must be tough, huh?" Dino chuckled awkwardly. He decided to quickly change the subject to avoid making the girl feel uncomfortable. "Nevertheless, Reborn wants you to join Vongola right away, but I don't think it's a good idea. I think we'll have to wait for a _spark_ to happen, and once it happens, you'll most likely end up joining."

 _Vongola._

Ayano has heard of this word before.

 _Ah. The skating place,_ she immediately recalled what Tsuna said back in the summer festival. But she couldn't comprehend why the little kid wanted her to join "Vongola". She wondered if he was inviting her to roller skate with Tsuna and his friends.

Furthermore, what did the blond teacher mean when he said, _"to wait for a spark to happen"_? Was there some type of lost in translation due to him being a foreigner?

"A kid is inviting me… to the skating place?" she said slowly to confirm if she was understanding his statement correctly.

The blond man enlarged his eyes in awe. He wondered if she misheard him.

"Skating place? No, not that. I was talking about a family, like a club or community… sort of," Dino scratched his hair.

"Right. The Vongola. Tsuna-san said it was a roller skating place," she confidently responded.

"Tsuna did? He's still goofy as usual," Dino laughed. "Nevertheless, I'm not pressuring you, Miss! As I said, the right time will come. I mean, considering that both of you are at **that** age, developing romantic feelings is inevitable! I think you will be a fantastic addition to Vongola family!" the blond waved goodbye as he quickly walked away, leaving the Nicolaou girl perplexed at his last statement.

Ayano could feel the glares originating from the other female students, which prompted Mina to grab her friend's arm and walk to safety.

"I don't understand what Dino-sensei just said. But I can tell he is very interested at how Hibari and I work together, right?" Ayano crossed her arms, her furrowed brows indicated that she was starting to become conscious of how the other students might also perceive her with Hibari.

"I mean, you work for the disciplinary committee. I do hear some rumors here and there, and words do spread like a fire. But you know, students naturally would be curious on how you're surviving the job. Some of them might even romanticize it," Mina teased.

"For a millionth time, I don't have any feelings toward Hibari-san," the long-haired girl put both her palms on her forehead, a sign of disapproval. "He's going to be very mad if he hears such a rumor like this."

* * *

Three hours later, the Nicolaou girl returned to the reception room for the first time since spring semester. The last time she interacted with the certain male was this recent summer, and she hated remembering it due to the "hallucination incident", which she found hard to accept. The situation was just too far-fetched to be true. She told Agatha about it that day and immediately, the concerned aunt took her niece to the hospital to test for any peculiar drugs in her system. They found no abnormalities. Therefore, the toddler's accusation—which Tsuna also claimed it to be true—that she had food poisoning was not plausible. Mina wasn't there when it happened, so even her friend couldn't vouch for her. So for now, whatever happened in the past was not to be brought up and hopefully, be forgotten.

 _Here I go,_ she took a deep breath as she arrived in the reception room and knocked before opening the door. The skylark who seemed busy with his work didn't bother to look up, as if ignoring the sudden entrance of her presence. It didn't bother her; she was fine with the lack of greetings.

What she was not okay with was the next painful hour-long of awkward silence.

Sure, the time was efficiently used, and eventually the paperwork for the day was completed. But no words were spoken. She wanted to start a conversation, but all she could think about was to ask him about his summer. Asking about his summer would definitely bring up that "incident", which she was trying to avoid and forget. There had to be one good topic to talk about. Finally, she remembered what she was going to ask Hibari earlier. She wondered if she could ask him about his connection with the foreign teacher, Dino. That sounded like a good conversation starter after a painful hour of silence, right?

"Hibari-san, are you familiar with Dino-sensei?" the female secretary blurted while she sorted out the folders on her desk.

He lifted his head up, mildly curious on how she knew of the bucking horse. "A former teacher of this school who you should not worry about."

"I see. He's very persistent. He asked me today about joining the Vongola family, or whatever that means."

The skylark suddenly stopped the movement of his pen. He wondered why the hell the bucking horse would ask a civilian to become a member of a mafia, let alone Vongola. It was not a safe place for herbivores who were incapable of fighting.

"Stay away from him."

"O… kay?" she raised her eyebrow, puzzled at his sudden warning. The blond teacher didn't look threatening to her; in fact, he seemed very friendly and outgoing.

"Hibari-san?" she called again. The skylark again looked up due to how she uttered his name for the second time in such a soft manner. She slightly widened her eyes upon realizing the words that just escaped her mouth.

Actually, she had nothing else to say. Maybe she was seeking for the unusual dynamic they had last spring; of how she could tell that they both somewhat enjoyed their small interactions. She panicked a little when she noticed that Hibari was awaiting her response. Both exchanged glances briefly, and for a second, her memories of the man from her "hallucination" suddenly flashed: of how "that man" gently caressed her, how he rested his forehead on her shoulder to find comfort, and how she felt warmth, affection, and security despite of the man being dominant and terrifying, just like Hibari.

 _Wait._

On a second thought, now that she noticed it, the resemblance of Hibari and that "man" was _uncanny_. It was as if the man was the older version of her present chairman. Like his future self. Their voices were also highly similar. She stared at his hand, trying to recall how the man's touch felt like, and wondered if it would be similar to that of Hibari's. _The bracelet,_ she remembered. Both wore the same bracelet, which was such an eerie coincidence. Her focus returned to the skylark's metallic gaze, and she wondered if Hibari was capable of such romantic gestures.

Romance _._ One single notion unexpectedly sparked a reaction from her.

Ayano immediately stood up and walked out of the room, which then left the skylark questioning her strange behavior. He allowed her to do so; she might have been feeling under the weather—which he claimed he couldn't care less about—as long as she was aware that she could not abandon her secretarial duties.

The Nicolaou girl walked as fast as she could, away from the reception room. She felt her cheeks warming up, which she repeatedly tapped to suppress the weird sensation she was feeling. She felt her heart fluttered, not because of some psychological or emotional feels, but because she claimed she was walking "too fast". She went around the corner and quickly entered the bathroom, then faced the mirror.

She saw how her cheeks have turned red. She was obviously blushing, but she refused to admit the reason why.

 _It can't be, why am I like this all of the sudden? S_ he repeatedly denied, shaking her head in disbelief. The more she looked at her reflection in the mirror, the more she realized what was happening. And the more she realized, the more reason she couldn't bring herself back to the reception room.

* * *

 **Please review! Also let me know if I had some grammatical errors, I'll fix them right away!**

 **I'll see you all later! If you need to ask me anything, feel free to reach me on my tumblr sideblog, posted in my profile. You can ask me anonymously about anything :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Itsyoursis-Artemis here! I haven't abandoned this fic I promise! I know I said I was going to update last November. Welp. Im so sorry for not following through. (sweats nervously). I had such a stressful semester that I became depressed.**

 **But I'm getting better now. I'm not satisfied with this chapter for some reason, but I need to move on with the story and pick the pace up.**

 **I'm trying to release another chapter before 2017 ends!**

 **Merry late Christmas, and have an amazing happy new year!**

* * *

Several months had passed since Ayano's first encounter with GM and she had yet to make any development with her investigation. She found it difficult to extract information about her mother from him because snooping around was not her forte. Her time wasn't exactly wasted though; she appreciated how much she learned about firearms—from self-defense and hunting techniques to learning the mechanical parts of a simple hand gun. However, that wasn't her ultimate goal.

 _I give up. This is futile_. _What else can I do?_

The fearless girl wished that she could time travel back to when she first found out about GM.

She wished that she could have approached her situation in a simpler way.

She wished that she could have just told GM the truth from the very beginning and not have to lie about her identity.

She was confident that he would have sympathized with her if he listened to her story.

 _It's not too late to correct my mistake, right?_ she questioned herself.

The Nicolaou girl was now sitting at a table outside a coffee shop, anxiously waiting for someone. She had just invited GM out for a coffee and intentionally chose a crowded, public place. The presence of people somehow gave her a sense of security, especially with what she was about to do today:

She decided, without her aunt's consent, to reveal everything to GM.

When the old man finally arrived, they exchanged greetings and chatted for a while. He definitely thought that it was peculiar of her to suddenly invite him for a cup of coffee. He knew something was up when he listened to the voicemail she left for him.

"GM-san, I need to be truthful… to you," began the fearless girl in a hesitant tone, as she took a sip of her coffee. "But promise me you'll remain calm after hearing what I'm about to say."

"Interesting. I had a feeling that this meeting is not just about the coffee," GM wondered.

Her eyes were on the ground for a good 5 seconds before lifting her head up again. "Your quirky personality uplifts my mood every time, and I truly enjoyed learning from you, GM-san."

"Oh no, this sounds like an introduction to a goodbye. Are you quitting?!" interrupted the dramatic old man.

Ayano expressed a painful smile. "I… hope not to quit."

"Oh, that's great! But what's the news you need to break? Please don't tell me you killed someone using what you learned from me?" he joked.

The long-haired girl couldn't help but chuckle at his response. "No, I didn't kill anyone. But back to the topic, I'm a bit afraid that you won't forgive me once I tell you the truth." There was a slight quiver in her voice.

"Huh? You're scaring me…" the adult scratched his head.

Ayano took a deep breath. "I was abandoned at an orphanage when I was a baby. Fast forward to last year, I learned about my biological mother, and that she has been missing for 18 years."

"Woah, that's… I'm sorry." GM looked uncomfortable upon hearing such a personal story. He quickly tried to cheer up the mood. "Wait I hope you're not here to tell me that I'm your dad?! I don't remember knocking up someone from 18 years ago?!"

Ayano softly laughed at his reaction, appreciating his comical personality. "Don't worry, I'm not a child of yours. But I'm not a Fujioka either. So let me introduce myself properly," she straightened her posture and took another deep breath before the big reveal.

"I'm Nicolaou Ayano, **Yoshino's** daughter. And I'm sorry that I lied about my identity."

GM was about to take a careful sip of his hot coffee when he spilled some of it on the table upon hearing her revelation.

He looked at her with wide eyes, not sure if he misheard it or if she said _Nicolaou_ just now.

He didn't buy her sudden claim. Maybe she was pranking him?

Her resemblance to Yoshino was uncanny indeed. But, he insisted that this was all a bad joke.

She wasn't kidding though. She continued with her story—about Yoshino, Dimitri, her aunt Agatha, the journal entries… everything. He was speechless. Her story matched his past with Dimitri.

GM's face darkened, and he remained silent for few moments.

"Are… you mad at me, GM-san?" Ayano fearfully broke the silence.

The adult glared at her, which made her jolt.

He then softened his gaze.

He felt bad for her, for being deserted. For being left alone to search for her origin, that—unbeknownst to her—ended in chaos.

So chaotic that almost killed his children, thus giving birth to his grudge against the Nicolaous.

But he knew he couldn't blame her. She wasn't even born when the whole incident happened.

"You lied to me this whole time, putting up such a façade. You could have tried to tell me everything in the beginning instead of deceiving me, and I would have understood your situation. Don't you think it was unnecessary to drag this for months?" he responded with slight exasperation.

"I… didn't know what was going to happen if I did that. I felt the need to protect myself. When you accidentally mentioned your hatred against my grandfather during that one conversation, I became scared of you."

 _"_ _Those Nicolaous almost ruined my business and almost put my family in danger."_ GM remembered saying this.

But what was he going to do now? He needed time to process everything. But at the same time, the girl in front of him was seeking for immediate response.

"Geez, okay. You know what? I forgive you for lying to me."

He forgave her. Her situation was too complicated, and he felt that it was unfair to impose his hatred on an innocent civilian just because she was related to Dimitri.

On the other hand, Ayano wasn't expecting that response. Her vision became blurry, feeling a warm tear drop along her cheeks.

"Wait don't cry! Not in this public setting!" GM panicked.

Ayano let out a soft chuckle and quickly wiped her tears away. "Thank you… for listening to my story."

"I should be apologizing to you for scaring you in the beginning about the Nicolaous. Since you told me your story, this means you weren't part of the past. You didn't do anything wrong. There is no fault upon you. And I want you to understand," GM put his hands on Ayano's shoulders, "that you should not blame yourself for your mom or grandpa's mistakes in the past."

Ayano's tears became tears of comfort. She was able to apologize for deception, and GM was forgiving about it. That was all that she needed.

"Do you want to know what I know about Dimitri and Yoshino?"

"Yes." She adamantly responded. "I've been seeking for the truth."

"Then you have to promise me not to change after hearing the truth. Promise me, that you will stay as yourself: a bubbly, ambitious, aspiring, strong, independent, woman you are."

His disclaimer slightly alarmed the long-haired girl. What part of her family history could possibly affect her greatly that GM had to warn her about it?

She nodded as a sign of affirmation. All she could do next was to listen as part of her bloodline history unfolded in front of her.

* * *

 _Flashback_

 _"She's only 11, are you sure about this?"_

 _"The earlier she learns, the better, right?"_

 _The two adults in their early 40's exchanged glances, displaying an apathy look. Three seconds later, they burst into a perfectly choreographed hand gestures. Both widely grinned at each other upon successfully doing their well-coordinated handshake._

 _"What the heck, dad," nonchalantly hollered the little girl._

 _The other man, who revealed to be GM, snorted at the kid. "What a language you have there, lil' miss! Who taught you that?"_

 _"It's not that bad of a word. She might have heard me say it once," Dimitri shrugged. He turned around to bring his daughter in front. "Say hello to GM-san, Yoshino."_

 _The little girl, dressed in a long denim overall, tilted her head up to look at GM. "Good afternoon mister. Why is your head covered with a handkerchief?" she blatantly commented._

 _GM squatted and scratched the side of his cheek, impressed at how bold his best friend's daughter was. "Well, I was never blessed with thick hair. And I discovered that bandanas are very trendy, so I transformed it into my own fashion!"_

 _"Sooo you're bald," the little girl blurted with no sense of courtesy._

 _Dimitri burst into laughter upon hearing his daughter's response. The other man simply shrugged; she was correct, after all._

 _"She definitely got her attitude from you, Dimitri." The owner of the shooting range place smiled at her and pointed his index finger on the ground. "Do you know this place, Yoshino-chan?"_

 _Yoshino casted her focus around the building. It didn't take her a long time to formulate her response._

 _"Yes. Dad said I'm going to learn how to defend myself today, and obviously this place is where I'll learn."_

 _GM was impressed. "You are a smart cookie, little one! But this is a pretty scary weapon for girls like you to handle," he added, pointing at the rifle that Dimitri was carrying on his shoulder._

 _"I might be a kid but daddy said that I will grow up to be a tough one. Besides, I'm inheriting daddy's business in the future, and I will become the best leader when that happens!"_

 _You see, little Yoshino had no memory of growing up with a mother figure. Her father said that her mother was receiving the best care in the world and will be back when the right time comes. She didn't really mind growing up without a mother. Dimitri would always take his daughter with him to his "business" trips, therefore the two developed such a strong, unbreakable father-daughter bond._

 _Young Yoshino was also easily impressionable—whatever her father did was always amazing to her. She had witnessed him as an admirable leader in action, a skilled hunter, a knowledgeable mentor, and overall, a loving father. She aspired to be just like him, thus setting herself up to a high expectation that will prove to be fatal 15 years later._

 _"Hold a minute, Dimitri. Did you tell her about Soteria at such a young age?" GM whispered to his friend._

 _"Yes. I learned about my fate as a boss at a much younger age. This isn't that different."_

 _Soteria was an underground company: a firearm manufacturer/supplier. Initially, the company was simply named Nicolaou, which was founded in Macedonia so many centuries ago. However, with the civil war breaking out, the state prohibited multiple firearm companies from supplying anti-government groups with weapons._

 _However, back then, the Nicolaou company was affiliated with some powerful mafias as well as the government itself. It was truly a two-faced company: extremely loyal like a watchdog toward the government while operating behind it by providing illegal weapons to the criminal organizations._

 _They were Nicolaou on the surface, but Soteria underground._

 _Nicolaou fell apart after several years, but Soteria remained alive. Soteria continued to supply for the mafia and gangs around the world for so many generations. There were multiple attempts by the world leaders to crack down black market activities, But Soteria had such an excellent history with leaders being successful at operating under the radar._

 _"I know that she'll inherit your business, but do you think this is the appropriate time? Will she be able to handle it?" GM's voice was now slightly disappointed with a condemning tone._

 _"My loyal watchman informed me about how the Soteria members approved the transition of power because they thought that they could easily have an influence on my daughter due to her gender. Those fools. I'll condition my dear daughter to be an excellent leader. A charming boss that will show care to her family yet will show no mercy toward the unfaithful ones. A true Nicolaou that will uphold the family's tradition."_

 _"Does that mean baldie-san will work for me when I grow up?" Yoshino suddenly clapped her hands, which surprised both the adults._

 _"Baldie-san?! Lil one, you are savage! You definitely got your dad's personality eh?" GM laughed. He then continued. "Just be careful with your goal, Dimitri."_

 _"Don't worry, she'll grow up fine."_

* * *

Halfway through the semester, students prepared for bunkasai, a school festival that occurred around the Halloween season. Discussions upon discussion in each classrooms occurred in a span of two weeks, and finally, Ayano's class decided what their event was going to be.

Ayano's class agreed on a simple Halloween-themed café. She was assigned as a server, and therefore must wear a costume for the event. It didn't take her a long time to decide what she was going to be.

She saw a cheap wedding dress at a thrift store a few weeks ago, which she impulsively bought. At first, she didn't really have a plan on what to do with it. She thought of customizing it if she ever came up with the right design. Now that she remembered this purchase, she decided to dress up as corpse bride, minus the blue skin. There were still rules that the disciplinary committee imposed, such as prohibiting "excessive decoration on your body". Whatever that means.

The day of the festival arrived. After serving for about an hour, Ayano took a break to check if she had any secretarial duties to fulfill. But first, she decided to go to the rooftop to meet with the person who left a mystery note in her locker that said: _Please meet me on the rooftop at 12pm._

Ayano was not that dense. She had a strong feeling that she was about to receive a confession from someone. Never did it cross her mind that she had a secret admirer.

 _Of all the places, why the rooftop? I hope Hibari-san is not there,_ she mentally sighed.

Once the Nicolaou girl reached the rooftop, the door creaked upon opening, which startled the male student, whom she was unfamiliar of.

"Hello! Erm, Uhm…" the male stuttered, his head pointing down on the ground due to perhaps, nervousness.

"Hi…? I haven't met you before…" Ayano held out the note as she slowly approached the shy guy.

"Ahh… Yes… Uhm… I'm from class-B, and I've been…and I've been admiring you from a distance… I mean, not stalking… but like…. Please don't think of me as a creep!" He nervously chuckled, his fingers fidgeting. He looked up and both made an eye contact, which he immediately broke within a probably, half a second. He was so shy, as if he had just met a very popular celebrity.

Ayano simply nodded. She wanted to let the guy finish his sentences.

"So… Uhmm…. Please go out with me!" he bravely confessed, followed by a 90-degree bow.

That was Ayano's first time of being confessed.

It wasn't even a confession. She felt it more like a demand. He didn't even introduce his name.

Nevertheless, she was genuinely curious about what he saw on her. She was about to ask the guy when suddenly… on cue, Hibari walked in, interrupting the love confession.

"What business do you have with my secretary that you're crowding with her?"

Both Ayano and the unnamed student froze.

"Hi… Hibari-san!" shrieked the poor guy. "I was just… I'm sorry! It's nothing!… BYE!" The nervous student quickly dismissed himself, almost bumping onto the skylark on his way back inside the building.

"What was that?" nonchalantly yawned Hibari.

"I received a confession, but you scared him off just as I was about to give an answer."

 _Confession, such a childish act,_ he rolled his eyes. Although for some reason, he felt slightly irritated.

On a more important note, he was distracted by his secretary's costume. She wore a "blood"-stained wedding gown. The dress was ripped at arbitrary places. Her long hair along with the veil covered her exposed shoulders. Her ripped wedding dress was long enough to cover her knees.

 _What the hell is she wearing._ Hibari didn't even need to utter a word. He was judging her costume so hard. He couldn't understand why students would waste their time with unnecessary antics.

"I'm dressed up as a newly-wed bride accused of murdering her groom, if that's what you were wondering," she joked.

"Hn." He was unentertained.

Then there was an awkward silence.

"That boy, I was going to reject him, if you were also wondering." She wasn't sure why she randomly just said that. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to clarify that to him.

For some reason, the skylark felt a sense of relief upon hearing her statement. He couldn't explain why he hated the thought of his secretary being with another male student.

"Student Ryo, average grades, average looks, just a plain herbivore. It would be best that you don't crowd yourself with the likes of him." He felt satisfied saying that.

 _How condescending,_ Ayano raised her eyebrow. "And you're not really in the place to tell me who I should be with, are you?" she smiled with a sarcastic undertone.

He approached her while she stepped back until she was against the railings.

"Then who do you think you should be with?" He smirked, as if taunting the "bride".

He was too close that she could feel a blush creeping up on her cheeks, but she fought her emotion to suppress it. Ayano knew that he was trying to get a reaction from her, but she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction.

This ended up in an unintended staring contest. Five seconds is not long, but it sure was if you locked your gaze with someone… and if that someone was the one you might have a questionable crush on.

There. She finally admitted it to herself.

It took her a few denials, self-lies, and maybe some sleepless nights of thinking about Hibari until she realized that she developed a one-sided crush.

 _Good thing it's only a crush, and a questionable one too,_ she mentally reassured herself. She believed that the topic of romance might never be Hibari's cup of tea. To prevent herself from falling too deep, she advised herself to convert these feelings to platonic acquaintanceship (if such concept even exists), hoping this whole crush thing will go away soon.

"Honestly, I'd date you if you weren't very dominating," she muttered, forgetting what she just advised to herself.

She didn't mean to provoke, but she just successfully extracted a reaction from her senior.

"Oh?" Hibari challenged her response.

"Ah. Never mind, I need to go back to my classroom." She lightly pushed him aside. Suddenly, he grabbed her wrist to prevent her from leaving.

"My secretary is growing a fang. Should we test if it can withstand my tonfas?" He smirked.

She remained silent.

She was used to his "threats" that she didn't need to beg for mercy.

She's physically weak, and he should know that. And she knew that he wouldn't actually fight her. He'd get bored easily.

"How boring," uttered Hibari after not getting any response.

 _See? I knew it,_ she mentally celebrated. She forgot to keep her silliness all inside of her head that she accidentally let out a few chuckles.

"Herbivore, what's so funny?"

"Oh. Nothing," she tried to stop her giggles, but the smile was still there.

"You should be laughing at your own attire. You look more like a cheap vampire than a serial killer."

"You might have confused an attempt to flirt with an insult," Ayano smiled.

"Woman, don't be full of yourself. I don't flirt."

"I know. I was just joking," she beamed. "You know, you have so much pride in the school, yet I can't see your school spirit. You should've dressed up."

"I don't participate in such lame activities."

"I'm sure you'd suit some costume ideas… such as," she paused. Her eyes slightly widened at the first image that popped in her mind.

This was then followed by an attempt to stop her burst of laughter.

"You're laughing again. You are thinking about something inappropriate, spill it." He was unamused.

It wasn't really an inappropriate thought. The first image that popped in Ayano's mind was Santa. It would be cute on Hibari, but picturing him with a white beard on, was too much for her sanity to take.

"Sorry about that. I just thought that you probably would hate to dress up as Santa. Very random thought. Just ignore me please," Ayano giggled softly. "Also, can you let go of my wrist now?"

The skylark didn't realize that he had been holding her wrist and quickly let it go.

"That's absurd. I'm going back," he turned around. "You have some paperwork to do after school, don't forget that."

They had quite an interesting conversation, but now, he was itching to do some "hunting".

Maybe he could hunt that male student who tried to mingle with his secretary?

* * *

 **Still feel unsatisfied with this chapter. Let me know what I should improve on.**

 **Please review. :)**


	16. Update: May 27,2019

Update:

Hello.

It's been 1.5 years. First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who noticed this story and gave it a try. It means so much to me that I know readers enjoyed my incomplete story.

Second, I owe everyone an apology for disappearing without notice, despite promising previously about an update. My desperation to survive the engineering program I was in led to losing my creativity and passion to write while attending university. For that, I am truly sorry for not even posting a *hiatus notice.

Now that I have graduated, I will be moving on to start my career. This means, I have now time to reestablish my creativity and continue with this series. The next chapter that I was supposed to publish back in December 2017 is **already completed since last year** , but I will be working on revising it again. It will be posted soon.

I appreciate the time that you all put into reading my story. I understand that I probably lost all of audience's interest.

And that's okay to me.

Writing is my form of escape from reality, which I will need as I continue on with the next chapter of my life.

I enjoy writing, and I am proud of this fanfic.

I will see you guys in the next few days.


	17. Chapter 16

**Author's note: I am realllly glad that I decided to revise this chapter that was written last year, it was going the direction I didn't want it to go! The timeline would have messed up had I published the original chapter last year.**

 **Nevertheless, I am back! Whoop whoop!**

 **To Sparksofrandomness, fuchsteufelswild, and Kurochach: Thank you for your kind words, I really appreciate it!**

* * *

 ** _Previously on Safe and Sound,_**

 _Ayano recently revealed her real identity to GM as the daughter of Yoshino. Despite being deceived by Ayano, GM forgave her and agreed to disclose any information he knew about her grandfather—Dimitri, and her mother—Yoshino. It turned out that Ayano's grandfather was the boss of Soteria, an underground organization that provided and sold firearms illegally around the world. GM revealed that Yoshino was the next successor in line and was already being trained at an early age._

 _Namimori high school just finished a school festival that occurred on the Halloween week. The Nicolaou girl, dressed as the corpse bride, received a confession from her secret admirer, which was then interrupted by the chairman of the disciplinary committee. Words were exchanged, and the conversation between Ayano and Hibari ended with the committee chairman preparing to "hunt" her secret admirer._

 ** _Trigger warning: implied domestic abuse and mention of drugs. Very minor. Nothing too explicit in words/details. It's just I want to give a heads up just in case it might be a trigger to some readers._**

* * *

 _Springtime. 30 years ago._

 _"You want to study architecture?! Sounds very badass, little miss!" GM proudly exclaimed._

 _The feisty Yoshino, who was 17 years of age, pulled the trigger of the rifle and fired at a wooden model about a hundred feet away. The adult simply whistled at the perfect headshot._

 _"I must say, I really thought you'd be studying business management or something. After all, you're inheriting Soteria—a POWERFUL organization," GM pointed._

 _"Thanks captain obvious," she took a deep breath. "But you also know that I've always been fond of architecture," Yoshino winked as she reloaded her gun. GM simply shrugged._

 _"By the way, how's your dad? I haven't seen him around for weeks."_

 _"He's…uhhhhh. Busy." Her hesitation did not successfully hide her lie, which GM detected._

 _"Ohhhh…kay...? Care to elaborate little missy? He's always been busy since before you were born, yet he always managed to visit me frequently. What is this new type of 'busy' you're speaking of?"_

 _The next successor of Soteria just finished reloading her rifle. Suddenly, without any warnings, she fired at all the wooden models continuously until she ran out of bullets. Her sudden action startled the owner of the shooting range, which made him drop the empty handgun that he was holding._

 _"Woah there! What was that for little miss?!"_

 _Yoshino was still staring at the destroyed wooden targets, ignoring GM's question. Her gaze was slightly ominous, like a camouflaged tiger patiently stalking its next prey. Almost immediately, her smile returned, as if nothing happened five seconds ago._

 _"I need to go, I'll see you next week, baldie-san!" She happily hopped her way out after placing the unloaded rifle on the table._

 _"Hey kid, wait! You… forgot to clean my rifle!" shouted the confused adult. But the grinning teenager was already out of his sight, leaving him in a state of bewilderment._

* * *

Present time. November.

Ayano admitted: there was something "thrilling" about taking gun lessons.

She wasn't even sure if firearms were legal in Japan.

If they weren't, then how was it possible for GM's business to thrive? _I should probably ask him later,_ the Nicolaou girl mentally noted.

Nevertheless, she discovered that GM could actually be a very friendly and cool storyteller. She believed that the more "lessons" she received from him, the more details he could remember about her mother, especially since Soteria was oddly never mentioned in her mother's diary.

"Listen kid, the more you know about Soteria, the more you expose yourself to danger. Your mom abandoned you so that you can live a normal life. To pick up the shattered glass pieces by your bare hands is a dangerous game you're playing," GM warned.

"If mom wasn't secretive about Soteria on her diary, then I would have stopped bothering you a long time ago," Ayano's voice faltered behind her smile.

"What I think you should do is take your mom's advice. Leave the past alone, face the present, and focus on your own life," GM suggested. "Don't even get me started with organized crime groups, they're common nowadays," he emphasized with a great tone.

"Huh?" Ayano's eyes darted at him.

"You know. Yakuza, gangs, the mafia…" he added.

"Mafia…?" she questioned.

"Look missy, I've had a couple of sketchy mafia men visit this place, asking me funny questions. But I ain't stupid. I know that they are hunting for someone. I don't know who, and I don't want to know. Which is why I'm begging you, don't dig for too much information." He reloaded the handgun and gave it to the fearless girl to finish her next dummy targets.

 _The mafia_ , she muttered.

Why could she not remember an important conversation she recently had that was related to a "mafia"?

* * *

Fall departed upon the arrival of the frosty, winter season. It was late November, and the weather channel already forecasted heavy snow starting the next day. Such weather would prevent Ayano from visiting certain places that were written on her mother's diary. Therefore, before the first snow of the season arrived, she decided to visit a very influential person to her mother.

As she walked down an affluent and unfamiliar neighborhood, she spotted a group of students, whom she immediately recognized. In such a quiet residential area, the conversation of the group echoed loudly and could easily be heard from her distance.

"Tsuna! Are you going to ask any girl to the winter ball?" the tall student cheered.

"Of course, he's going to ask Kyoko-chan. Right, Tsuna-kun?" the red-haired boy commented.

"She'll definitely reject me," the spiky brown-haired sighed in defeat.

"Have some confidence and grow a pair, Tsuna," the toddler smirked and threatened with a what seemed like a toy gun.

"Hiee! Not the dying will bullet!"

Just before the ruckus escalated, Reborn, along with Yamamoto, noticed a familiar female student approaching from the opposite direction.

"Ah! What an encounter, Ayano-san!" beamed Yamamoto.

"Oh, hello! You guys are lively…as usual." She made a small bow. "Hi Tsuna-kun, Enma-san, Hayato-san, Reborn-san. It's Sunday, what brought you guys out here?"

The boys looked at each other, tongues seemingly tied.

"Power training." Enma casually replied.

"Hieeeeeee! Enma meant to say work-out training, yes! We kind of just wanted to take a short walk after our work-out session... haha!" Tsuna awkwardly chuckled as he scratched a visible small scratch on his cheek.

"Hmmm, it's quite a walk, don't you think? I mean, this place is certainly far from Namimori town," the suspicious Nicolaou pointed out, yet her perceptiveness failed to notice the dirt marks and blood stains on their shirts.

"Tsk, woman, so what if we like long walks? What are **you** doing here?" snarled Gokudera.

"Visiting a friend," she lied, a little. "Anyways, you guys were talking about the winter ball just now," she brought the topic back up.

"Yeap! We're excited about it because this is our last winter ball, and hopefully, the best one!" Yamamoto's excitement was through the roof, which made the Nicolaou girl chuckle.

"I promise, it will be the best one. The student council worked so hard to make this year's ball very unique and memorable."

While the group continued hyping the school event, the silver-haired boy unexpectedly inserted a completely irrelevant topic in the conversation.

"Oi woman, is it true that you and Hibari are dating?" interrupted Gokudera.

Everyone froze like Medusa's victims upon Gokudera's bold question. Except the toddler in the fedora hat. Reborn simply grinned.

"You're rude Gokudera-kun, that's private stuff that you shouldn't be demanding an answer for," Enma noted in such a passive tone.

"Time. Out." Ayano pinched the bridge of her nose. "And where did you hear that from?" She felt a slight warm sensation creeping up on her cheeks.

"Rumor. In school." Gokudera shrugged. "I made a bet about it with the baseball freak. He doesn't think Hibari is your boyfriend. But I think you're dating that demon."

"School rumor?!" The long-haired girl waved her hands in disapproval. "No no no. We are **not** … dating. Nope."

"Well, I won the bet!" celebrated Yamamoto which made Gokudera rolled his eyes.

"Can you guys not spread the rumor? We all know what will happen if it reaches Hibari-san," goosebumps crawled on her skin as she pleaded, already thinking of ways to resign from her secretarial position.

At the same time, Ayano realized that she had better things to do than gossip about her chairman, so she decided that it was time to depart from the group that seemed to love school drama.

"Anyway, you know what? My friend is waiting for me and I'm already late. I'll see you guys in school tomorrow, have a fun walk!" She quickly excused herself and disappeared from the boys' sights.

Reborn finally broke his silence. "Interesting. Tsuna, what do you think of Ayano being a member of our family?"

The 10th boss of Vongola yelped. "Absolutely not!"

* * *

Ten minutes later, the curious Nicolaou finally arrived at an unfamiliar residence after her encounter with Tsuna's circle. Her destination was a house that was currently occupied by a retired professor, Professor Noda, who was mentioned multiple times on Yoshino's diary. Professor Noda played an important role in her first three years in college. Noda was a student advisor as well as an architecture professor who specialized in interior design—a similar emphasis that Yoshino was interested in.

With a little bit of internet research, Ayano was able to acquire his contact information. Her simple voicemail consisted of a small introduction and a request to meet with him to discuss about her mother's college years—if he still remembered his former student. Surprisingly, his response revealed that he indeed still remembered Yoshino as one of his top students, and that he agreed to have a chat with Ayano.

Ayano rang the doorbell which was answered quickly. The front gate revealed a female caregiver. The woman didn't mutter a word; she instead gestured to let the Nicolaou girl know to come in. It seemed that the caregiver was instructed to let in a visitor whom Noda was expecting. The retired professor then met his guest in his living room, with two cups of tea and some snacks already prepared on the coffee table. He signaled the teenager to take a sit on the couch adjacent to the table after they made their greetings.

"How's your mom? You look so much like her, genetics is astounding ain't it?" started Noda in his raspy, old voice.

The teenager took a deep breath. She reminded herself to be careful with her words. Her eyes landed on her lap, finding the right way to start her sentence. "Actually, this might sound odd professor, but… I've never met my mom."

Noda was about to reach for his tea when he stopped midway upon Ayano's statement.

"Pardon?" the retired professor was obviously baffled.

The next hour was spent on explaining her situation, starting from her abandonment at birth. Of course, she left out the part about the Soteria business. She didn't feel comfortable letting out too much information because she had not established her trust with the professor… yet.

On the other hand, Noda couldn't help but listen in awe. In fact, he remembered Yoshino as a talented, yet cryptic student. She would visit him in his office many times to ask for constructive criticism about her projects. She had such intricate architectural designs, which indeed showed her passion about her career. Yet, her designs were impossible to construct in real life due to structural flaws that she purposely placed. She never shared her reason for the intentional design flaws. She claimed her blueprints to be feasible, and that whatever was perceived as "faulty", was an intended illusion. What was the goal of her structural "illusion"? It didn't make sense to Noda, even after spending so many years analyzing her blueprints. He admitted—as a professor who attained the highest educational degree as well as years of experience in the architectural field—he was a little frustrated about not being able to decode Yoshino's mysterious designs.

"Your mother was very talented, and I strongly believed back then that she was going to be a successful architect," Noda concluded after his long speech about Yoshino's accomplishments. "I wish she never met the guy that ruined her future."

"Guy?" Ayano inquired.

Noda pushed his eyeglasses up. "She started dating this overly, possessive guy during her 3rd year. At first, she was excited to share to me her love life, as if I was her love therapist. However, as the time progressed, her relationship completely changed her… into a new person," Noda cleared his throat, indicating pain from reminiscing his memorable student.

The Nicolaou girl didn't mutter a word. She wanted the professor to continue his story.

"Your mother went from being a studious, confident, passionate, and motivated student to a frightened, insecure, and doubtful woman. She stopped going to my office for project feedbacks. And whenever I saw her around campus, she looked very, drained. Weak. Anxious."

"Did you ever try to talk to her, to determine what was happening?" Ayano desired for more information.

Noda rubbed his temple, hesitating to reveal the ending of his story. He glanced at his guest's eyes and saw no fear but her unyielding curiosity.

"On her 5th year, I emailed her for an advising session. Being her faculty advisor, I found out that she was failing classes. She was close to graduating, and I wasn't going to let her drop and waste her four years' worth of work."

The professor motioned his caregiver to reheat his tea before he continued.

"The meeting didn't even last 5 minutes. She attended but she was unresponsive to my concerns. Then, I noticed… bruise marks on her arms. I became alarmed and I asked if she was being hurt by someone, but she stiffened upon hearing my question and immediately walked out of my office," Noda's face turned sour. "I knew that wanting to know about your student's mental state might be perceived as too invasive. But I was genuinely concerned about your mom. I still blame myself today for not doing enough to help her."

The Nicolaou girl's lower lips trembled slightly. "Did… she ever mention anything back then, that might help me find her today?"

"I'm sorry, I don't remember any notable words that she said that might serve as a clue. However, I'm not sure if you want to hear the last thing that happened to her before she ultimately cut off her contact with me."

Ayano took a deep breath before nodding her head.

"I was told by another faculty that your mom… along with her boyfriend, got expelled for possession of illegal drugs on campus."

* * *

The clock struck past four o'clock, reminding Ayano that she had been in Noda's residence for two hours. It was her time to leave the professor's residence out of courtesy that she might be exhausting the elder. It had been a long day; the beginning stage of sunset was evident by the orange hue dominating the entire sky.

She learned so much about her mother's college years that were not mentioned in the diary nor in GM's testimony, which made the orphan girl wonder if her mother purposely left those details out.

"I'm sorry this happened to you. I will be praying that your mom is safe and well, wherever she is," consoled the genuine professor.

"Thank you."

The two bid their farewell. Instead of taking the taxi, Ayano resorted for a walk so that she could clear her mind. The teenager was obviously confused and distraught. It seemed that she was now discovering the darker side of her mother's history. Her fearlessness was starting to waver; she now wasn't sure if she wanted to proceed with her search for her biological mother.

What if the story actually ended in tragedy?

Should she save herself early from the heartbreaking news by quitting her investigation?

What if she was already more than half-way to the finish line?

But how would she know that?

All she wanted was to find her mother safe and sound.

 _Wait._

Was that really the purpose of this whole thing? To find a mother who refused to be found?

But she didn't need to find a mother.

She already got one.

How could she forget about Tara?

Tara, the owner of the orphanage house who raised her like a real daughter, was the mother figure everyone would wish to have. Ayano couldn't even remember the last time she talked to her. Tara showered the Nicolaou girl with so much love as she grew up… only to be forgotten?

Ayano felt strongly disheartened by her own actions.

 _GM was right,_ she admitted in defeat.

Not because she became the cat that the curiosity killed.

But because her obsession with the idea of meeting her biological mother **almost** replaced her most important possession: Tara's motherly love.

Twenty minutes into her mentally exhausting walk, she spotted a serene-looking, traditional tea house. She decided to stop by and take a quick break. She slid the door open and was met with a welcome sign that also instructed customers to remove their footwear at the entry-way doormat.

She scanned the room, adoring its minimalist vibe. The floor was covered with green tatami mats. The host wore an elegant kimono. There were beautiful haikus in calligraphy hung around the room. Paper lantern lamps on the ceiling illuminated the whole space perfectly. The place was very traditional, indeed.

There was only one customer situated at the very corner. Funny enough, the person looked so familiar.

 _Wait a minute._

That customer turned out to be the very last person she wanted to see if the world was ending.

Kyoya Hibari.

 _WHY_ , was the only word she could form inside her head as she stood frozen in the middle of the room.

Now she was convinced that mentioning his name was actually a spell that would summon the said man. And she blamed it all on Gokudera's daring **question** earlier.

Nevertheless, it was too late to turn away and walk out without making the situation awkward. They already made a solid eye contact. So Ayano went ahead and approached the strangely, calm figure.

"First the Sawada circle. Now you. Why am I encountering everyone outside of Namimori?" Ayano flailed her arms up in defeat as she sat on the tatami mat across the skylark.

The unconcerned skylark didn't respond and continued to sip his tea. Her presence wasn't bothersome to him. In fact, he was just as surprised to see his secretary popped out of nowhere.

She got up to order a simple coffee before returning to the skylark's futon table.

"Can I sit here?" she pointed down.

Again, the skylark didn't respond.

"I'll take that as a yes," sighed Ayano.

Two awkward minutes passed. Again, the committee chairman was oddly non-confronting and silent. The Nicolaou girl didn't complain about it though. She needed a companion just for a bit so that she could take a break from thinking about her mother. She wished it didn't have to be Hibari. Luckily for her, he was calm. She convinced herself to treat the current situation the same as their casual hangout in his office, where the two silently worked through stacks of paper. That was all. Nothing more.

While the long-haired girl was enjoying her coffee, Hibari continued to examine her presence. Her purpose for being here. The coincidence of encountering each other outside of Namimori. Her encounter with the herbivores, and _if Yamamoto was there_. He also noticed how her hair was not the length he remembered it, so did she trim it?

He would have asked these questions. But her silence was more pleasant to him than a tiring conversation.

"By the way, winter ball is around the corner, will you be attending?" blurted Ayano, interrupting Hibari's self-talk.

He supposed talking about school wouldn't be bad.

"What a ridiculous question. I don't associate myself with crowding. Especially in that environment," nonchalantly answered the uninterested Hibari.

The Nicolaou girl sighed in defeat. "You're right. That'd be very out of character of you. Geez, sorry for hoping."

"You hoped for my attendance?" he raised his eyebrow, his metallic gaze locking with her cloudy gray eyes.

Ayano wished that a real life "undo" button existed so that she could change her previous statement. To "hope" that her chairman would attend the winter ball was a suggestion of her _desire_ to be near him—a dangerous development that she previously promised herself not to pursue. She shouldn't be _longing_ for Hibari's presence because that would strengthen her attraction to him, which she already admitted a while ago. Besides, she concluded that the compatibility was just, not there. That's what her brain believed and what she thought made the most sense.

But it seemed her heart felt otherwise.

She wondered what would happen if there was compatibility. It would be the most interesting plot twist of her life. _Maybe Hibari-san is capable of more than a platonic friendship?_ she wondered. It was such an absurd and laughable possibility that she accidentally let out a chuckle.

 _But what if?_

"What's so funny?" followed up by the unamused Hibari.

Her gaze landed on her lap. "What I meant to say was that I was hoping you'd be patrolling that night because I'd really appreciate if no one breaks the rules to ruin the event," she hid her elaborate lie behind her amiable smile.

The male subject was slightly disappointed at her boring response. "I don't need to be reminded of my duty," Hibari remarked.

 _He bought my lie,_ Ayano sighed in relief.

"By the way, shouldn't you be looking for a new secretary?" Ayano swiftly changed the topic.

"And why is that?"

"Because it's almost December, and I'm graduating in 4 months? You should open up an application for the next board members."

She was right. Hibari completely forgot that she was a senior transfer student. He took a sip of his still warm tea and closed his eyes.

 _I don't want her to go._

The confused skylark immediately opened his eyes and frowned at the strange thought that randomly echoed inside his head.

 _Since when did I care about this herbivore?_

Hibari was now annoyed and confused at the same time.

He was annoyed because he suddenly felt a weird twist in his stomach. He was confused because the thought of her leaving might have induced it.

"I don't do applications. I choose my members, herbivore."

Ayano's eyes widened, which she then followed with a light giggle. "It's been a while since you called me herbivore. Anyway, I'm just saying, I'm not going to be your secretary forever. Also, aren't you graduating too?"

"Hn. Who knows?"

"What do you mean 'who knows'? It's not like you're failing, that would be very ironic."

"I can choose what grade I am in."

Ayano raised her eyebrows. "Ah. I see. Of course. I keep forgetting that you might be the owner of the school or something," she joked.

Before he could respond to her silly claim, Hibari was interfered by a ringing phone coming from Ayano's purse.

"Hello, Aunt Agatha? Yes, I'm on my way home," Ayano reassured. Within five seconds, the long-haired girl shot up from her position and gasped. "What?! A mail from a fashion school in Italy?!"

Her excitement was evidently uncontainable. Her eyes beamed from hearing a what seemed to be a good news.

Meanwhile, it wasn't difficult for the curious Kyoya to deduce from the phone conversation that his secretary applied for a fashion school. What seemed to bother him was the notion of her going away. _Far_ away.

"Okay aunt, I'll try to hurry up. I'll see you back home!" She hung up, face full of radiance like a thrilled child seeing an ice cream for the first time. "I need to go home. I'll see you at school, then." Ayano quickly collected her belongings and walked out of the tea house.

 _Italy?_ Hibari mentally frowned. _So she's going far away_.

He shouldn't care, right?

But he was feeling irritated.

 _I don't want her to go._ Again, the same thought echoed in his head, which further fueled his irritation.

 _Stop_ , he ordered himself, which was a silly attempt to deny whatever was going on inside his head.

He believed that some violence might cure the knot in his stomach. Therefore, the skylark decided to return to Namimori immediately so that he could start his search for people who "deserved" to be bitten to death.

* * *

 **Author's note: Okay okay so hear me out. This chapter just ended the slow-burn part of the story. I will be moving on with reinforcing the pairing in the next chapter, of course without making it OOC.**

 **Yay I'm exciteddddd, I can't wait to update my readers!**

 **I'll see you soon!**


	18. Chapter 17

**I'm back! Wow this chapter feels long to me.**

 **Have fun!**

* * *

It was a white, snowy, Saturday. It was also the day of Winter Ball.

Enchanted— the theme of the event, a term as magical as the current month, December. Happiness is in the air when it's December. Love is in the air when it's December. Forgiveness and reconciliation are in the air. Closure. A new start. It didn't matter what one's religion was. Everyone deserved the magical, enchanting things December always offered every year.

The themes in previous years were creative, too. Last year, it was "The Great Gatsby", where the jazz music and the "Roaring 20's" formal attire were emulated. The year before that, it was "Paris", a masquerade-concept ball matched with the vibe that the city of love exudes.

For this year, "Enchanted" would create an environment full of happiness, love, compassion, admiration… you name it. This was conceptualized to be an event as captivating as a fairytale world in a winter setting, sprinkled with some aspects of the holiday season to match those of the students' holiday spirits.

However, to bring the theme into existence, it was important for the student council that the arrangement of the venue was exactly as planned.

Currently present on campus in the afternoon were student volunteers who signed up to set up the venue, which was held at the school's gymnasium. The budget for the event could only accommodate the costs of the decorations, equipment rent, and the banquet catering. There was not enough money to hire 3rd party staff that could set up and clean the place. Thus, the council offered admission ticket discounts, to the first 50 students to help with the event decoration as well as the post-cleanup operation. The whole student council were also required to help with the set up. Surprisingly, a few members of the disciplinary committee were present to offer their help.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the disciplinary committee sat alone in his office, well-aware of the busy situation. He also had some busy paperwork to do; it was common for him to work on some weekends. However, it was unusual that some of his underlings offered their help with the operation at the gymnasium. "Impressive herbivore", was his response when he found out from Kusakabe that Ayano somehow, befriended a good number of the members of the disciplinary committee, which explained their presence in the gymnasium.

"Good afternoon. How's it going?"

A voice from the ceiling interrupted Hibari's well-maintained focus. He looked up and at the same time, a ceiling tile opened, revealing an unexpected, but familiar and well-respected visitor.

The kid in the fedora hat landed on the couch situated a few feet from Hibari's desk. The entrance of this infamous hitman tutor was always amusing to him, appearing uninvited from the walls in intriguing ways.

But the toddler's appearance always had a purpose. A scheme. _What could it possibly be this time?_ the Vongola cloud guardian silently thought to himself.

"Toddler," the skylark addressed as Reborn fully revealed himself. "What is your business here?"

The toddler sat on the couch and smirked under his fedora. "Nothing really. I'm looking for my no-brainer student."

"My office is where you'd least likely find Sawada in," yawned the skylark.

"I know. I just want to say hi to Ayano-chan."

The sound of the pen's friction against the paper stopped. Hibari glanced at the toddler who was comfortably drinking a cup of coffee. His perceptiveness was trying to decipher what Reborn might be planning.

"She's not here."

"I can see that she's not here, Hibari-san."

"Then get out," the skylark breathed exasperatingly.

"Okay, I'll leave."

The arcobaleno turned around as if he was really going to exit the room, still holding his coffee on his left hand.

"Oh wait, one more thing," he turned his body toward the indifferent skylark, "you know… she's not that bad."

"I don't know what you mean by that."

Reborn placed his coffee on the table and leaped on the Hibari's desk. "Of course you don't. She's a regular civilian, but at the same time, she's not. She's not a combat fighter, but she's growing to be a fighter. Fearless."

"And what am I supposed to do with that information? You're disrupting me with nonsensical stuff…" the chairman was now slightly pissed. "Cut your speech, what is your purpose here, toddler?" He glared at Reborn, whom then simply responded with a mischievous smile.

"Alright, I'll cut to the chase. I want to recruit Ayano to be a member of the Vongola family. Not as a guardian. I don't know what her purpose will be yet, but my gut is telling me that she'll play an important role."

Hibari frowned upon Reborn's statement. This was the second time he heard of the ridiculous suggestion—of his secretary joining the Vongola. The first time was when Ayano mentioned that Dino had asked her to join a "family". The skylark could not understand why Reborn and Dino were very fond of her. Ayano would never survive a mafia conflict, and therefore should never be a part of this dangerous organization. He made sure that whatever Reborn was scheming would not happen.

On the other hand, Reborn believed that there was something going on between Hibari and the female secretary.

And the typical wicked toddler had a plan.

The girl could serve as a pull factor: a motivation. A rare opportunity to make Hibari fully accept his status as a family member, and more importantly, as Vongola's 10th generation cloud guardian.

Additionally, she might not be as fragile as she seemed to be.

Reborn had been secretly "researching" Ayano, and it was not difficult to discover her little hobby at a range place disguised as an abandoned building. Knowing Reborn's detective skills, it was also not difficult to learn about her true origin, and her little "mission" of finding her mother.

In fact, Reborn might be a few steps ahead of her in terms of locating her mother, a card that he planned to use to "recruit" the Nicolaou girl. This was the reason why the toddler was confident about his plan, and he had no intention to disclose any of this information to Hibari.

The toddler jumped back to the couch and broke the silence. "So, what do you think, Hibari-san?"

"Laughable. It's quite disappointing that your idea of a Vongola member is a mere weakling."

"She's not what you think she is."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want to know your opinion."

"I'm warning you, stay away from her." Hibari rose from his seat, which didn't intimidate the toddler at all.

"I also heard she's moving to Italy, which will make it easier to introduce Vongola to her since our main headquarter is also in Italy," further tantalized Reborn.

"She wants to work with clothes, not the mafia. Last warning. Stay. Away. From. Her." Hibari's tonfas were now visible, and he made sure that his threat was obvious.

"You're defensive. Perhaps you are concerned about her?"

"You're projecting."

"Am I?"

Reborn shot up back to his little ceiling door just before the skylark launched his first attack.

"I will take my leave then, have a great afternoon, Hibari Kyoya!"

This might be the first time that the skylark felt the need to destroy his ceiling and chase the toddler in the fedora hat.

But he suppressed his bloodlust. There was no need to waste his energy on Reborn's game. Besides, what normal girl would believe this whole mafia business?

 _Certainly not Nicolaou Ayano,_ he told himself.

However, Reborn's words echoed at the back of his mind.

 _"She's a regular civilian, but at the same time, she's not."_

What a paradox, proclaimed with great confidence.

It didn't take long for Hibari's hunch to figure out that the toddler knew something about her that he didn't.

He shouldn't care, but why was it bothering him?

* * *

Two hours later, a knock broke the boring silence in Hibari's office.

"Hey," greeted Ayano. She was dressed warmly, a long white puffer coat mismatched with black mittens, right hand occupied with a cup of drink.

The skylark raised his left eyebrow in question. He didn't recall summoning his secretary in the afternoon. She entered his office and closed the door behind.

"The set up ended very early, and we had some extra hot drinks. I brought one for you, I figured you'd like to have a nice, hot, black tea to combat this cold weather." She handed him the drink, evident warm steam escaping the sip hole of the lid.

It was a nice gesture, but the skylark didn't need it. He hesitated, but eventually he motioned with his head to place the drink on an empty spot of his desk.

Her presence reminded him of the recent conversation he just had with Reborn. His gaze met hers, searching for hints of whether the toddler had given her the ridiculous "recruitment talk".

"I didn't poison it, if that's what you were wondering," she lightly joked.

Her attention turned to the pile of papers on his desk, and she immediately knew that he had more work to complete. On the top of the file was the security agenda, which detailed the schedule of the disciplinary committee members for tonight. She had read it already before, but she still wanted to say something about it to her chairman.

"You know, I understand that the council asked for some type of security measure, but isn't this plan a little, too much?" inquired Ayano, as she reviewed the security agenda of the event.

"Everyone already agreed so there should be no problem."

"Well, everyone agreed because they couldn't disagree," she muttered softly under her breath.

"I don't speak the mumble language."

"What I meant to say, Hibari-san, is that I just think having the perimeter of the gym surrounded by disciplinary committee members might intimidate the students."

"Everyone should have seen the strict security coming."

"I… know. It is what it is," the Nicolaou girl sighed. She wasn't going to win this argument.

"Anything else? I don't need your service today, so leave."

 _How about a simple thank you for the tea I brought,_ she thought to herself.

She wanted to leave so that she could properly rest and get ready for tonight, but since the set up ended two hours early, her aunt wouldn't be able to pick her up yet.

"Actually Hibari-san, I—"

"No."

Her brows knitted upon his sudden interruption. "You haven't even heard what I was about to say."

"If it's a complain, then I don't want to hear it."

"How do you know that if you refuse to listen to what I'm about to say?"

"You're already doing it," yawned the chairman.

"Doing what? I haven't done anything," her body unconsciously moved, slowly approaching Hibari.

"You just complained," he mocked. Who knew his boredom could get to a point where teasing his secretary was oddly… entertaining?

"About what? I didn't say—"

"You wanted me to listen. I didn't want to. You complained. Is it that hard to recall your own words, Nicolaou Ayano?"

"Wait. What? I didn't complain about you not listening to me?" Her voice raised a little louder than usual, frown plastered across her face.

Hibari didn't think he'd find amusement upon his secretary's frustration. He might have spilled a slight smirk.

"Do you see the position you put yourself in just now?" He rose from his chair to make it easier for her to see his point.

She realized that she was only a few centimeters from him where she could smell a hint of his cologne. And such proximity gave her a chance to notice small things about her chairman.

For instance, he seemed… taller? Also, his hair was parted differently, in a messy but _good_ , way. His fringes had also gotten longer.

Lastly, his complexion was a little paler than what she remembered it to be?

"Herbivore, are you done staring at me?"

A pink tint escaped her cheeks, which she failed to hide from Hibari. Ayano took a step back. Away from the person that mesmerized her for a good five seconds.

 _She's… flustered?_ he questioned mentally. It made her appear vulnerable and… weak.

Two traits he hated. Yet he had a strong urge to protect.

"Look, I'm not going to play your little… game," she massaged her temple.

"You started it," his nonchalant voice slightly annoyed the already calm Ayano.

"Hmm… you know what, you're probably right," her face softened, adamant eyes darting back to his. "It all started when I accepted this secretary position."

Hibari's smirk faded.

Something about her response spoke an essence of truth.

But something about her response also sounded like a… goodbye.

"But at least our little bickers were entertaining… sometimes," she continued, diverting her gaze away from him.

As she turned around and towards the door, Hibari felt a twist in his stomach.

Similar to that stomach twist when driving over a bumpy hill. A twist that wanted to convert itself to an urge. An urge to hold her back and stop her from walking away, even though he was the one who pushed her out in the first place.

Instead he stood frozen still, his pride battled against his own feelings.

"I was going to offer you some help with the paperwork, but it turns out you don't need it," she added, her eyes on the door handle.

 _Then stay,_ was what he wanted to enunciate, but it remained in his head.

"Have a uhmm… great day, Hibari-san."

And just like that she was gone from his sight.

He realized that he was starting to hate that image…

The image of her walking away.

* * *

The clock hit seven o'clock, signaling the gate to open for the Namimori High Winter Ball, commencing with a banquet-style dinner before the night activities. It was a good thing that the gymnasium had the capacity enough to fit the only allowed students: juniors and seniors. Half was occupied by round tables covered with white table clothes and accompanied by centerpieces.

The other half of the gymnasium was designated as the dance floor. Other things such as photo booths, float decorations, concession stand, etc. could be found along the corners of the venue. The overall vibe was welcoming enough that the students seemed not to be intimidated by the presence of the disciplinary committee patrollers.

The Nicolaou girl, unfortunately, was not excused from her student council duties. She was reminded by the council president of her existing position as the school's historian. Meaning, for the publication of the upcoming school yearbook, she must photograph the event's best moments throughout the night. As if to make things less convenient, none of the yearbook club members attended, which meant she had no assistance.

Nevertheless, she remained positive. After the entrance, she chose to sit with her dear friend Mina, along with the seniors of the volleyball team. The team's attire made their table look like a makeup palette of pastel colors mismatched with Ayano's maroon dress.

The caterers showed up 30 minutes after the gate opened. Once the attendees got served their food, conversations resumed.

"So, no date?" asked Ruka, a senior volleyball player.

The Nicolaou girl simply shook her head. "Nope! But I'm curious as to why none of the volleyball team didn't bring a plus-one with them?"

"I think we are too intimidating to be asked by any guys," chuckled Haruhi, the co-captain of the volleyball team.

"We don't need men," added Sakura, the captain of the team. The rest of the girls snapped their fingers in synchrony, agreeing to their captain's declaration.

"We kind of thought Hibari-san would show up if you attended, but that's like, never going to happen right?" joked Mina.

"Well, he is on campus right now. In his office," calmly said Ayano as she finished the last bite of her meal.

"Hey, if you need help with making a move, you should give him some cookies from the concession stand," Ruka cleared her throat.

"Ruka, stop it. Ayano-san, you're pretty, and Hibari is a freak. You can do better," advised Sakura.

"Whaaatttt… I think Hibari-san is kind of handsome," countered Haruhi, which made everyone cough upon her unpopular opinion.

"Also isn't it interesting how that Hibari is so tolerant around you? So just try it! The cookies are cute!" winked Ruka.

Ayano groaned at the persistent girl. "He hates cute things though."

"He doesn't hate you," teased Mina.

"Isn't that great…" eyes rolled by the Nicolaou girl.

"Girl. We all got radar. We know what's going on between you two. I think you should get some answers from him before you… study abroad," suggested Haruhi.

 _That's true,_ Ayano told herself.

She told almost everyone except Hibari, about her acceptance to a prestigious fashion school in Italy, where she would be given opportunities to work for prominent designer brands. Although she's very thrilled, moving away from Japan was also a little scary. Her undergraduate program would be very time consuming as she would be required to do internships year-round, barely giving her any free time to have a vacation break.

"Well, why don't we all stop talking about that guy. Dance is about to start in a few minutes," motioned Sakura.

"That sounds great to me," agreed Ayano in relief.

The dance was what everyone was looking forward to. The music didn't really have a theme. As long as the songs were upbeat and appropriate, the student DJ played it. The Nicolaou girl was having a great time dancing as well as going around to take pictures of other attendees. Thirty minutes into the dance, she decided to take a restroom break.

Seeing the other girls crowd around the restroom mirror, Ayano also stared at her own reflection. She was pleased that her light makeup sufficed at masking the fatigue on her face. At the same time, the girls next to her were gossiping about the boys they danced with, and how Yamamoto was "serving looks," which made everyone giggle. Such gossips made her think about what her chairman might be currently doing.

The sudden thought of Hibari made Ayano's cheeks blush a little.

 _Oh no I'm crushing hard,_ she thought to herself in defeat.

And the more she denied it, the stronger it got.

Haruhi was correct, about finding answers from him before leaving for Italy. But how?

The Nicolaou girl couldn't bring herself to have that _conversation_ because she knew it would turn awkward immediately. There was no way that he was even capable of such _conversation_.

But the "conversation" is bound to happen. When? Ayano wasn't sure. She knew she needed a closure before moving to Italy in the summer.

After concluding her self-talk, she walked out of the restroom. As she turned around a corner, she accidentally bumped on a patrolling Kusakabe.

"Kusakabe-san! Sorry about that! Thank you for securing the grounds, I hope you are keeping warm?" beamed Ayano.

"Don't worry about it, I have a couple of heat packs in my coat and it's keeping my job comfortable," he reassured. "How's the Ball?"

"It's going great! The dance just started half an hour ago."

"Oh, are you having fun?"

"Yes, very much. You should take a quick break and dance with me!"

Kusakabe blinked multiple times, as if he heard her invitation wrong. "I don't think someone will like the idea of me dancing with you."

Ayano realized how her statement could be taken the wrong way. "Oh, I mean… dance, like, in a friendly, fun way, not like…" she paused. "Wait, who's not going to like the idea of us dancing?"

"I think you know the answer to that, Nicolaou-san," Kusakabe chuckled nervously. "Well I appreciate your invitation, but I must excuse myself. I'm glad to hear that you are having fun," he bowed and parted from her.

 _I wonder if he was pertaining to…_ her tired eyes widened.

"Wait, Kusakabe-san..." she called. "What is Hibari-san... currently doing?"

"Hmm? I think he's in his office, doing paperwork probably," he recalled.

"Sounds just like him."

"He plans to patrol when the event is over," Kusakabe added.

"I see. By the way, do you know if Hibari-san likes cookies?" wondered the secretary, praying to hear the word "yes".

"Hmmm, he enjoys them. Why?"

Ayano looked down, twirling the curls of her hair. "There's some extra cookies packed in small baggies, do you think he'll accept it if I bring him some?"

"Definitely, if it's from you," smiled Kusakabe.

"Oh. I see, thanks Kusakabe-san!" Ayano hurried back to the gymnasium.

Maybe Ruka's suggestion might not turn bad.

* * *

If there was anything the Nicolaou girl always appreciated, it was the comfort of silence. However, silence was nowhere to be found as she stood still outside of her chairman's office.

Or maybe it was there all along.

Maybe it was her loud heartbeat that was interfering her sense of hearing, which made it sound like the hallway was being serenaded with obnoxious drums.

She was obviously nervous. Nervous enough that the concept of "knock before you enter" briefly disappeared from her dictionary of politeness.

Carefully pushing the door, she caught a glimpse of the person she wanted to see.

"Hi…" was the only word that escaped her crimson red lips, failing to say a rather formal greeting.

The male in the room was facing the window, watching over the gates for any non-student intruders. He didn't need to move from his position to know the source of the feminine voice.

Puzzled by her presence but kept his attention on the gates, he asked, "what do you need this time?"

"I brought you uhhm… cookies…as my apology for bothering you this afternoon."

"I'm not hungry," his gaze below at the gates remained undistracted.

"You don't have to eat it now, it's from the event." Ayano walked toward him and placed the little baggie on his desk.

It was odd for Hibari to hear the sound of her high heels against the floor—how it exuded the power of her femininity. He straightened his chin, catching a glimpse of her blurred reflection on the window. He turned around as he felt her presence nearer.

Her long, strapless, silky dress hugged her figure comfortably, screaming in an ombre hue of black and maroon. The tiny stones on the top part shone like glitter, imitating a burning, screaming, galaxy. The leather camera strap around her neck battled with her silver necklace for the space on her nape. She took off the dangling camera, revealing redness on her collarbones from the strap, which was swiftly hidden by her long, curled hair.

"You look stupid," scoffed Hibari.

His insult caught Ayano off-guard, who froze midway from trying to place her camera and purse on the couch.

However, she was not offended, at all. In fact, she burst a laughter that echoed across the room. Her nervousness from earlier disappeared. Who knew the skylark's mean comment, which really was an attempt to compliment, was the cure to the turbulence in her head?

"What's so funny, herbivore?"

"Haha… it's nothing," she fanned her eyes to dry her watery sight from a good laugh. "I'm sorry for looking too stupid for you?" her sarcasm was clearly tempting him to a friendly quarrel.

"It doesn't seem smart to me to dress minimally in a sub-zero weather, does it?" he rolled his eyes.

"Well, good thing the central heating on campus works wonderfully!"

"I don't understand why herbivores enjoy these things. It's foolish."

"Having fun is foolish? You need to try it."

"I don't need it."

"Have you even danced before?" She held out her hand, unknowingly inviting him to do an act that was definitely not within his character. Hibari's brows knitted, unimpressed by whatever stunt she was trying to pull.

Realizing how awkward she looked, Ayano immediately retrieved her arm back. Her eyes searched the floor for advice on how she could recover from her own embarrassment.

"See? You just made a fool out of yourself," he smirked.

"Okay, yeah yeah I admit that was an awkward attempt to uhm..." she had a difficulty with ending her sentence—words jammed in a heavy traffic. What would she even call that?

She cleared the blockage in her throat and continued, "forget it, are you done with your… paperwork and stuff?"

"None of your business. Don't you have some responsibilities to do? Stop sticking around my office, herbivore." Hibari returned to his chair and leaned back, slightly irritated by the lateness of the night.

"Fine geez I was just trying to be…" What was she trying to be? Nice? Flirty? The latter was definitely not the answer she should choose.

"… friendly," she sighed.

The skylark was about to respond when he was interrupted by a phone ring, which came from Ayano's purse.

"Hello, Yamamoto-san? Sure, I'll head there soon." She hung up and before she could put her phone back in her purse, Hibari suddenly snatched her phone away. After a quick scroll, he pressed the delete option. He tossed her phone back to the couch effortlessly.

"Hibari-san! What did you do?"

"I erased his number."

"Who's? Yamamoto-san?" she scrolled up, horrified that she could not find Yamamoto on her contact list. "Why did you that?!"

"He irritates me."

Her jaw dropped upon his ridiculous answer. "That's not my problem?"

Hibari turned his back, unbothered by his fuming secretary. Still upset by Reborn's declaration, he convinced himself that what he did was one step to get her away from the Vongola brats.

"He's not good for you."

"Who are you to say that? Yamamoto-san is a great friend, you're just jealous th— " she quickly covered her mouth after accidentally blurting out a term that she knew he definitely disliked.

"Excuse me?" he scowled. He faced his secretary once more, his gaze clashed against her fearless pupils.

Ayano's mind was racing a marathon. Even she seemed like she just ran a mile, with her breath becoming staggered. But in this race, there was no turning back. _This_ conversation had to happen eventually, and it might have to happen now.

"I noticed that… you're always annoyed whenever Yamamoto-san is around me."

"I despise crowding regardless of who you're around with."

"That's hypocritical. So you're saying that whenever we work together after school, you hate it?"

"That's called being indifferent. For work purposes."

"That logic. Unbelievable. Still doesn't give you any right to erase his contact off my phone."

"Then stop hanging out with the Sawada circle."

"First Yamamoto-san, now Tsuna-kun and his other friends? Justify it."

Hibari was surprised that he tolerated her act of defiance for this long. He could just let his tonfas to do the talking, but he could not bring himself to hurt the girl in front of him. She had the right to get mad, fair enough. But at the end, it was for her sake.

"You'll thank me later," he took a step closer.

"That is not a valid answer," Ayano retorted, further decreasing the gap between them.

"Herbivore, validity doesn't matter. Stop approaching me if all you want to do is argue."

Their heated exchange of words brought the two closer in distance together, like two canines ready for a duel over a prey.

"Can we stop being dishonest to each other, for once? I am tired of trying to decipher your vague demands, especially if they concern with me." Her gaze softened in the midst of keeping up with his dominating eyes.

"Dishonest? You're being overdramatic," he sneered. "Why don't you start being honest first?" he rolled his eyes, hoping that his sarcasm would make her give up her little conquest to solve his puzzle.

However, Hibari completely underestimated Ayano's resolve.

"I hate your arrogance—it's not cute. I hate your obsession with rules—you're not a god. I hate your tendency to resort to violence—fighting is not the answer to everything. But despite of all that, you're oddly magnetic. Sometimes you're funny, sometimes you're relaxed. Sometimes, I feel a sense of safety when I'm around you. And I don't get it. Which is why I hate that I let myself develop feelings for you. I hate that I like you. Because I already know that you won't reciprocate it."

It took a few gasp of breath after her little speech to realize that she might have revealed too much… honesty.

And as a result, color drained out of her face. Letting out her steam felt good. Yet at the same time, she felt horrified. Horrified of what was going to happen after.

Similarly, Hibari was caught off-guard by what he just heard. Behind the skylark's narrowed but also surprised eyes, was confusion.

 _She hates yet she likes me,_ he frowned mentally. It was stupidly contradicting.

But one part of it felt satisfying for the skylark. The part about her infatuation.

He believed that infatuation could lead to a weakness. However, revealing her "weakness" to him was a sign of her strength.

Additionally, revealing her "weakness" to him was a sign of her trust.

And handing out trust was a sign of loyalty.

Strength, trust, and loyalty were important traits that would make one a qualified companion to him. And Hibari admitted mentally that she… was a decent companion.

 _In what way was I dishonest, then?_ he questioned himself.

What he failed to recognize was that his pride was the impediment to his answer not only to this question, but also to his other questions in the past.

After a lack of response from him, the Nicolaou girl took some small steps back, her eyes landing on the floor and the couch interchangeably. Forgetting that her dress was a little longer on the back side, her right heel accidentally stepped on the fabric, resulting to losing her balance.

As she fell backwards, she suddenly felt a hand grabbing her forward which helped reclaim her own momentum by reaching for the adjacent body, resulting to her other arm wrapping around Hibari's nape.

His calloused hand, either from his endless signing of paperwork or his tonfa scars, pressed firmly against her soft palms, while his neck felt her small exhales.

"Clumsy, as usual," he muttered close to her right ear.

She quickly pushed herself away lightly as a response to his untimely tease. Refusing to look up to avoid eye contact, she grabbed her camera and purse off the couch.

"Thanks…" she softly conveyed.

"Herbivore, what you said earlier—"

"I said what I said, you heard what you heard. And I already know your answer," she interrupted. She took a deep breath, and quickly walked out of the room.

He wanted to chase after her, but something stopped him from doing so.

And again, he failed to recognize that his pride was the culprit.

 _When did she learn to interrupt me mid-sentence?_ His eyes narrowed, but he remained unbothered. He returned to his seat and reached for the small bag of cookies she left.

 _Enjoy losing her_ , suddenly echoed in the skylark's head.

He recalled the future Ayano saying those words when they met in the summer, and it made him want to punch something.

Because it was all clear to him that the future Ayano was referring to the current Ayano.

And that it was already happening… with her moving to a different country in about six months.

And with her always walking away from him.

He thought he would always get whatever he wanted. But in this case, he didn't know what to do to keep her around.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ayano dashed through the hallway to return to the Ball. As she completed descending a flight of stairs, she halted upon seeing a small figure that blocked her way.

"Hello. I need to talk to you," Reborn smiled.

The Nicolaou girl was too tired to have another conversation this soon, especially with a toddler who seemed to be always nosy about her _acquaintanceship,_ with Hibari.

"Hi, I'm sorry, can we talk at a later time? I need to go back to the gymnasium as soon as I can," she requested in a soft tone.

Before Ayano could run away from the gossip toddler, his next words sent chills down her back that made her froze from her spot.

"I have information about Yoshino Nicolaou, your biological mother."

* * *

 **Bloopers/incorrect quotes:**

Ayano **:** I hate your arrogance—it's not cute. I hate your obsession with rules—you're not a god. I hate your tendency to resort to violence—fighting is not the answer to everything... I-

Hibari: It be like that sometimes.

 **I'm kidding y'all.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this :)**


End file.
